Correlated fluctuations in the exciton dynamics and spectroscopy of DNA

The absorption of ultraviolet light creates excitations in DNA, which subsequently start moving in the helix. Their fate is important for an understanding of photodamage, and is determined by the interplay of electronic couplings between bases and the structure of the DNA environment. We model the effect of dynamical fluctuations in the environment and study correlation, which is present when multiple base pairs interact with the same mode in the environment. We find that the correlations strongly affect the exciton dynamics, and show how they are observed in the decay of the anisotropy as a function of coherence and population time in a nonlinear optical experiment.