DLS talk by Gregory D. Scholes: “Coherence Phenomena and Quantum-Like States”
The Distinguished Lecturer Series (DLS) continued in September with the lecture “Coherence Phenomena and Quantum-Like States” by Gregory D. Scholes. This series brings leading minds in all fields relevant to the science of light to Erlangen. The speakers present their research to a broad audience, enabling scientific exchange. Scholes is William S. Tod Professor at Princeton University. His research focuses on how complex molecular systems in chemistry and biology interact with light, including projects addressing quantum information science
Gregory D. Scholes (© Susanne Viezens)
“There are a rich variety of ways molecules can interact with each other and their environment, and the span of possible timescales—from femtoseconds to nanoseconds.”, explains Scholes in his talk “Coherence Phenomena and Quantum-Like States”. He and his team are interested in developing experiments intended to reveal another “layer” of information—beyond kinetics—to inform sophisticated theoretical models. Scholes discussed how observing vibrational wavepackets can serve as a molecular-scale probe providing insight into the reaction coordinates of electron transfer (ET) reactions. Valuable insights into electron transfer reactions have been generated using Marcus theory. However, a complementary theoretical model explaining how vibrational wavepackets evolve during electron transfer reactions has yet to be established. To address this gap Scholes described a “quantum quench” model.
In the second part of the talk he explained how to invert the paradigm in which complexity diminishes quantum coherence, such that robust quantum-like states emerge from extremely large, unordered, complex systems. He demonstrated a proposal for the structure of those states, showing how classical systems can mimic the superpositions of products which characterize quantum states.
Past talks ona are available on our YouTube channel in the DLS playlist.
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