Title: Functional advantages offered by many-body coherences in biochemical systems,
Abstract: Quantum coherence phenomena driven by electronic-vibrational (vibronic)
interactions, are being reported in many pulse (e.g. laser) driven chemical and
biophysical systems. But what systems-level advantage(s) do such many-body
coherences offer to future technologies? We address this question for pulsed
systems of general size N, akin to the LHCII aggregates found in green plants.
We show that external pulses generate vibronic states containing particular
multipartite entanglements, and that such collective vibronic states increase
the excitonic transfer efficiency. The strength of these many-body coherences
and their robustness to decoherence, increase with aggregate size N and do not
require strong electronic-vibrational coupling. The implications for energy and
information transport are discussed.