Abstract
Transport of excitations along proteins can be formulated in a quantum physics context, based on the periodicity and vibrational modes of the structures. Numerically exact solutions of the corresponding equations are very challenging to obtain on classical computers. Approximate solutions based on the Davydov ansatz have demonstrated the possibility of stabilized solitonic excitations along the protein, however, experimentally these solutions have never been directly observed. Here we propose an alternative study of biophysical transport phenomena based on a quantum simulator composed of a chain of ultracold dressed Rydberg atoms, which allows for a direct observation of the Davydov phenomena. We show that there is an experimentally accessible range of parameters where the system directly mimics the Davydov equations and their solutions. Moreover, we show that such a quantum simulator has access to the regime in between the small and large polaron regimes, which cannot be described perturbatively.
Highlights
In this paper we show that the Davydov soliton can be created and observed in a suitably prepared system of ultracold atoms, confined in an optical lattice and off-resonantly coupled to a Rydberg state[39,40,41,42]
An important question related to the dynamics of the HSSH Hamiltonian is whether the lattice vibrations are able cttowonostdanibteiiiolginhzebaoit|hrvieanegcx〉sc i=ittea bstii||oΨ~vn0a⟩tch=〉a =t i s102if(noairKt†iaa+nllyyail.Ko†F+coa1r)l|icvzeeardtcao〉inn, wpahaserpareemc|ievfitacercssi,〉teaisKsyt|hsΨtee0vm〉a=cpurueapKm†a|vrseatdactie〉n,otofhrtehssleeigsihnystitltyieamdl seftluaotlcefaislllieiznveogdltvohenes in such a way that the excitation does not spread across the protein
We show that a system of ultracold Rydberg atoms confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice may serve as a dedicated quantum simulator for excitation-vibration dynamics, which is a subclass of polaron dynamics
Summary
Transport of excitations along proteins can be formulated in a quantum physics context, based on the periodicity and vibrational modes of the structures. In this paper we show that the Davydov soliton can be created and observed in a suitably prepared system of ultracold atoms, confined in an optical lattice and off-resonantly coupled to a Rydberg state[39,40,41,42] Such a system can be regarded as a dedicated quantum simulator within the broader class of the Holstein-Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (HSSH) Hamiltonian[43,44]. Experimentally accessible parameter regime, both approaches confirm the existence of soliton solutions This indicates that with this Rydberg quantum simulator it is possible to study the regime in between the so-called small and large polaron regimes of the HSSH model, which cannot be described by perturbative theoretical methods
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