Understanding the correlations in space and time of open quantum systems

现在存在一套不同的实验技术，可以用来描绘量子系统的激发如何在空间和时间上变化。这些方法包括瞬态吸收显微镜，它可以探测大约100 nm以上的特征，以及扫描隧道显微镜发光，它可以探测到比单个分子更小的特征。这些技术非常令人兴奋，因为它们为复杂的量子力学过程如何工作以及它们在实际设备中的功能打开了一扇新的窗口。例如，它们使我们能够跟踪被吸收的能量如何在太阳能电池中移动，从而使我们能够设计更高效的设备。此外，以这种方式成像生物分子将使我们更好地了解生命的基本机制，并探索非平衡动力学在生物学中的关键作用。因此，至关重要的是，开发理论工具，能够模拟像分子这样的系统的量子动力学，这些系统通常与振动模式的环境强烈耦合。这样的开放量子系统经历非马尔可夫动力学，其中系统的行为不能仅从其当前状态来预测。它过去的所作所为也会影响它未来的所作所为。我们已经开发了一套突破性的新工具，使这些系统的超高效建模成为可能。我们的工具基于张量网络，非常适合提取现代实验现在能够提供的各种时空信息。在这个项目中，你的目标是识别和模拟这些实验中产生的信号。从长远来看，这项工作将有助于确定更好的太阳能收集设备设计。此外，我们希望了解量子变构-即。蛋白质不同部分之间的信号传递触发了生物功能。

There now exist a suite of different experimental techniques that can be used to image how the excitations of a quantum system change in both space and time. Such methods include transient absorption microscopy, which can probe features of above about 100 nm, and scanning tunnelling microscope luminescence, which can reach features that are smaller than a single molecule. Such techniques are very exciting since they open a new window on how complex quantum mechanical processes work and what their function is in real devices. For example, they allow us to track how absorbed energy moves around in a solar cell, thus enabling us to design more efficient devices. In addition, imaging biomolecules in this way will allows us a greater understanding the fundamental mechanisms of life - and to probe the key role of non-equilibrium dynamics in biology.It is vital then, to develop theoretical tools that are able to model the quantum dynamics of systems like molecules, which are typically strongly coupled to an environment of vibrational modes. Such open quantum systems undergo non-Markovian dynamics, in which the behaviour of a system cannot be predicted from its current state alone. What it has done in the past, too, affects what it will do in the future. We have developed a set of ground-breaking new tools that enable the ultra-efficient modelling of such systems. Our tools are based on tensor networks, and are ideally suited for extracting the kinds of spatio-temporal information that modern experiments are now able to provide. In this project your aim will be to identify and model the signals that are generated in these experiments.In the longer term, this work will help to identify better device designs for solar energy harvesting, In addition, we hope to understand how quantum allostery-i.e. signalling between different parts of a protein that triggers a biological function-works.