Spatial coherence of thermal photons favors photosynthetic life

Harvesting of sunlight underpins Life on Earth as well as driving novel energy device design. Though several experiments suggest that excitation energy transport and charge separation within a photosynthetic membrane may benefit from the quantum nature of their dynamics, the effects of spatial coherences in the incident light have been largely ignored. Here we show that spatial correlations in the incident light likely play an important role in trapping light and adding robustness, as well as providing a driving mechanism for an organism's adaptation toward more ordered structures. Our theory is grounded by empirical inputs, while its output is validated against testable predictions. Our results suggest that spatiotemporal correlations between photons, a fundamental property of the quantum world, should play a key role in our understanding of early Life and in improving the design of artificial photosynthetic systems.