We investigate the role of quantum coherence in the efficiency of excitation transfer in a ring-hub arrangement of interacting two-level systems, mimicking a light-harvesting antenna connected to a reaction center as it is found in natural photosynthetic systems. By using a quantum jump approach, we demonstrate that in the presence of quantum coherent energy transfer and energetic disorder, the efficiency of excitation transfer from the antenna to the reaction center depends intimately on the quantum superposition properties of the initial state. In particular, we find that efficiency is sensitive to symmetric and asymmetric superposition of states in the basis of localized excitations, indicating that initial state properties can be used as a efficiency control parameter at low temperatures.
The dynamical evolution of a quantum register of arbitrary length coupled to
an environment of arbitrary coherence length is predicted within a relevant
model of decoherence. The results are reported for quantum bits (qubits)
coupling individually to different environments (`independent decoherence') and
qubits interacting collectively with the same reservoir (`collective
decoherence'). In both cases, explicit decoherence functions are derived for
any number of qubits. The decay of the coherences of the register is shown to
strongly depend on the input states: we show that this sensitivity is a
characteristic of $both$ types of coupling (collective and independent) and not
only of the collective coupling, as has been reported previously. A non-trivial
behaviour ("recoherence") is found in the decay of the off-diagonal elements of
the reduced density matrix in the specific situation of independent
decoherence. Our results lead to the identification of decoherence-free states
in the collective decoherence limit. These states belong to subspaces of the
system's Hilbert space that do not get entangled with the environment, making
them ideal elements for the engineering of ``noiseless'' quantum codes. We also
discuss the relations between decoherence of the quantum register and
computational complexity based on the new dynamical results obtained for the
register density matrix.Comment: Typos corrected. Discussion and references added. 1 figure + 3 tables
added. This updated version contains 13 (double column) pages + 8 figures.
PRA in pres
Many collective human activities, including violence, have been shown to exhibit universal patterns. The size distributions of casualties both in whole wars from 1816 to 1980 and terrorist attacks have separately been shown to follow approximate power-law distributions. However, the possibility of universal patterns ranging across wars in the size distribution or timing of within-conflict events has barely been explored. Here we show that the sizes and timing of violent events within different insurgent conflicts exhibit remarkable similarities. We propose a unified model of human insurgency that reproduces these commonalities, and explains conflict-specific variations quantitatively in terms of underlying rules of engagement. Our model treats each insurgent population as an ecology of dynamically evolving, self-organized groups following common decision-making processes. Our model is consistent with several recent hypotheses about modern insurgency, is robust to many generalizations, and establishes a quantitative connection between human insurgency, global terrorism and ecology. Its similarity to financial market models provides a surprising link between violent and non-violent forms of human behaviour.
An evolving population, in which individual members ('agents') adapt their behaviour according to past experience, is of central importance to many disciplines. Because of their limited knowledge and capabilities, agents are forced to make decisions based on inductive, rather than deductive, thinking.We show that a population of competing agents with similar capabilities and knowledge will tend to self-segregate into opposing groups characterized by extreme behavior. Cautious agents perform poorly and tend to become rare.
We present a theory describing a recently introduced model of an evolving, adaptive system in which agents compete to be in the minority. The agents themselves are able to evolve their strategies over time in an attempt to improve their performance. The theory explicitly demonstrates the self-interaction, or market impact, that agents in such systems experience.
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