Excitation energy transfer efficiency: equivalence of transient and stationary setting and the absence of non-Markovian effects

Abstract

We analyze efficiency of excitation energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes in transient and stationary setting. In the transient setting the absorption process is modeled as an individual event resulting in a subsequent relaxation dynamics. In the stationary setting the absorption is a continuous stationary process, leading to the nonequilibrium steady state. We show that, as far as the efficiency is concerned, both settings can be considered to be the same, as they result in almost identical efficiency. We also show that non-Markovianity has no effect on the resulting efficiency, i.e., corresponding Markovian dynamics results in identical efficiency. Even more, if one maps dynamics to appropriate classical rate equations, the same efficiency as in quantum case is obtained.