Quest for spatially correlated fluctuations in the FMO light-harvesting complex.

ABSTRACT: The light absorption in light-harvesting complexes is performed by molecules such as chlorophyll, carotenoid, or bilin. Recent experimental findings in some of these complexes suggest the existence of long-lived coherences between the individual pigments at low temperatures. In this context, the question arises if the bath-induced fluctuations at different chromophores are spatially correlated or not. Here we investigate this question for the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex of Chlorobaculum tepidum by a combination of atomistic theories, i.e., classical molecular dynamics simulations and semiempirical quantum chemistry calculations. In these investigations at ambient temperatures, only weak correlations between the movements of the chromophores can be detected at the atomic level and no

SUBMITTER: Olbrich C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3244696 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature