Quantum and classical dynamics in condensed phases and complex systems

设计和控制自推进纳米马达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体装置、药物递送和货物运输相关的应用提供基础。 大自然已经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发挥的关键作用。这激发了科学家们模仿自然，创造出可以自我推进的人造微小结构。 这些小机器在它们运动的环境中受到分子的冲击，尽管有如此强烈的扰动，它们必须能够有效地发挥作用。拟议的研究涉及如何对化学动力纳米马达和蛋白质机器进行建模，以及如何在理论上描述它们的操作。 虽然经典力学通常提供了一个很好的描述自然，量子动力学需要在最小尺度上处理化学系统。人们的兴趣通常集中在大系统的一小部分的量子动力学上;例如，对于蛋白质如何在细胞中发挥作用很重要的电子转移事件。最近的实验能够探测和识别复杂物理系统中的量子动力学特征。 该提案中的研究将提供一种手段来调查环境在确定量子动力学性质方面所起的作用。

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.