Quantum and classical dynamics in condensed phases and complex systems

设计和控制自行式纳米电机和分子机器是纳米技术的一个重要目标。实现这一目标可以为与微流控装置、药物输送和货物运输相关的应用提供基础。大自然制造了各种各样的分子马达，我们依赖于它们在生物功能中扮演的关键角色。这激发了科学家们的灵感，他们模仿自然，创造出能够自我推进的人造微小结构。这些小型机器在它们运动的环境中受到分子的冲击，必须能够在如此强烈的扰动下有效地工作。拟议的研究涉及如何对化学动力纳米电机和蛋白质机器进行建模，以及如何用理论术语描述它们的运行。 虽然经典力学通常能很好地描述自然，但量子动力学需要在最小的尺度上处理化学系统。人们的兴趣通常集中在大系统中一小部分的量子动力学上；例如，电子转移事件对蛋白质在细胞中的功能至关重要。最近的实验能够探测和识别复杂物理系统中量子动力学的特征。这项提议中的研究将提供一种手段来研究环境在决定量子动力学的性质中所起的作用。

Designing and controlling self-propelled nanomotors and molecular machines is an important objective in nanotechnology. Achieving this objective could provide the basis for applications related to microfluidic devices, drug delivery and cargo transport. Nature has fabricated a large variety of molecular motors and we depend on the crucial roles they play in biological function. This has inspired scientists to copy nature and create artificial tiny structures that can propel themselves. These small machines are buffeted by the molecules in the environments in which they move and must be able to function effectively in spite of such strong perturbations. Proposed research deals with how chemically-powered nanomotors and protein machines may be modeled and how their operation can be described in theoretical terms. While classical mechanics often provides a good description of nature, quantum dynamics is required to treat chemical systems on the smallest scales. Often interest centers on the quantum dynamics of a small portion of a large system; for example, an electron transfer event that is important for how a protein may function in the cell. Recent experiments are able to probe and identify signatures of quantum dynamics in complex physical systems. The research in this proposal will provide a means to investigate the role that the environment plays in determining the nature of quantum dynamics.