General random matrix approach to account for the effect of static disorder on the spectral properties of light harvesting systems

Abstract

We develop a random matrix model approach to study static disorder in pigment-protein complexes in photosynthetic organisms. As a case study, we examine the ring of B850 bacteriochlorophylls in the peripheral light-harvesting complex of Rhodospirillum molischianum, formulated in terms of an effective Hamiltonian describing the collective electronic excitations of the system. We numerically examine and compare various models of disorder and observe that both the density of states and the absorption spectrum of the model show remarkable spectral universality. For the case of unitary disorder, we develop a method to analytically evaluate the density of states of the ensemble using the supersymmetric formulation of random matrix theory. Succinct formulas that can be readily applied in future studies are provided in an appendix.