Impact of solvent on state-to-state population transport in multistate systems using coherences

Understanding the pathways taken by a quantum particle during a transport process is an enormous challenge. There are broadly two different aspects of the problem that affect the route taken. First is obviously the couplings between the various sites, which translates into the intrinsic "strength" of a state-to-state channel. Apart from the inter-state couplings, the solvents affecting the energies of the state, and their relative coupling strengths and time-scales form the second factor. This impact of dissipative media is significantly more difficult to analyze. Building on recently derived relations between coherences and population derivatives, we present an analysis of the transport that allows us to account for both the effects in a rigorous manner. We demonstrate the richness hidden behind the transport even for a relatively simple system, a 4-site coarse-grained model of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex. The effect of the local dissipative media is highly non-trivial. We show that while the impact on the total site population may be small, there are dramatic changes to the pathway taken by the transport process. The ability to untangle the dynamics at a greater granularity opens up possibilities in terms of design of novel systems with an eye towards quantum control.