On sub-sevenfold symmetries in LH2 stacked ring scaffolds: A quantum optical perspective

Abstract For highly efficient light-harvesting, purple photosynthetic bacteria rely on light-harvesting 2 (LH2) complexes featuring ninefold, eightfold, and sevenfold rotational symmetries; however, sub-sevenfold scaffolds have not yet been observed in nature. To investigate this absence, we utilize a closed coupled-dipole model that neglects dissipative effects, which remains valid for a temporal window shorter than the interlayer excitation energy transfer time (on the picosecond scale) in an LH2 scaffold. We examine collective eigenmodes across $C_n$ stacked model ring geometries for $n=9,8,7,6$. Our results demonstrate that the minimum energy separation between specific collective bands occurs at the angular-momentum modes $m=\pm 1$ for known geometries, effectively predicting the photoactive absorption wavelengths of the lower bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) ring. Specifically, we predict peaks at 851, 848, and 825 nm for ninefold, eightfold, and sevenfold symmetries, respectively, which agree well with experimental observations. Applying this analysis to a hypothetical sixfold geometry, we predict a significant blue shift in the photoactive wavelength of the lower BChl ring, suggesting inefficient harvesting of the available solar spectrum and offering a quantum optical perspective on the evolutionary absence of sub-sevenfold scaffolds in LH2 complexes. Our study demonstrates that quantum cooperative models can elucidate specific aspects of biological LH systems.