Photosynthesis is a highly optimized process from which valuable lessons can be learned about the operating principles in nature. Its primary steps involve energy transport operating near theoretical quantum limits in efficiency. Recently, extensive research was motivated by the hypothesis that nature used quantum coherences to direct energy transfer. This body of work, a cornerstone for the field of quantum biology, rests on the interpretation of small-amplitude oscillations in two-dimensional electronic spectra of photosynthetic complexes. This Review discusses recent work reexamining these claims and demonstrates that interexciton coherences are too short lived to have any functional significance in photosynthetic energy transfer. Instead, the observed long-lived coherences originate from impulsively excited vibrations, generally observed in femtosecond spectroscopy. These efforts, collectively, lead to a more detailed understanding of the quantum aspects of dissipation. Nature, rather than trying to avoid dissipation, exploits it via engineering of exciton-bath interaction to create efficient energy flow.

1 Institut für Theoretische Physik Universität Hamburg Jungiusstrasse 9 20355 Hamburg Germany

Atomically Resolved Dynamics Department Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter 22761 Hamburg Germany

Chemical Physics Box 124 Lund University 22100 Lund Sweden

Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology University of Gothenburg Gothenburg 40530 Sweden

Department of Chemistry Boston University 590 Commonwealth Avenue Boston MA 02215 USA

Department of Chemistry Columbia University 3000 Broadway New York NY 10027 USA

Department of Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Department of Physics and Earth Science Jacobs University Bremen Campus Ring 1 28759 Bremen Germany

Department of Physics University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48108 USA

Departments of Chemistry and Physics University of Toronto Toronto ON M5S 3H6 Canada

Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Nanyang Technological University 21 Nanyang Link Singapore 637371 Singapore

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Charles University Ke Karlovu 5 CZ 12116 Prague 2 Czech Republic

Institute of Molecular Cell and Systems Biology College of Medical Veterinary and Life Science University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ UK

Institute of Theoretical Physics Department of Theoretical Biophysics Johannes Kepler University Linz Altenberger Str 69 4040 Linz Austria

Technische Universität München Dynamische Spektroskopien Fakultät für Chemie Lichtenbergstr 4 85748 Garching Germany and Photonics Institute TU Wien 1040 Vienna Austria

The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging Universität Hamburg 22761 Hamburg Germany

Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials University of Groningen Nijenborgh 4 9747 AG Groningen Netherlands

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Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting (Antenna) Complexes-Structures and Functions