Fermi accelerators, inverse Fermi accelerators, nonadiabatic dynamics and quantum trajectories: towards a method for electron dynamics

Resumo

The proposed research project seeks to reexamine an old research interest of the Brazilian PI; exact solutions of the Fermi accelerator model in the new context of non-adiabatic dynamics in molecular systems, thus shedding light on this important area. The previous, exact solutions will also themselves be improved, in two important ways. First, they will be analyzed using quantum trajectories-a specialty area of the US PI. This will provide dynamical insight, as well as a proper means of comparing exact quantum waves to approximate classical trajectories, which thus far has been lacking. Second, numerical calculations will be performed to obtain time-dependent solutions of the Fermi accelerator. The latter will be important for extending the theoretical insight into domains very far from Born-Oppenheimer-such as ultrafast electron dynamics, an area of great topical interest. The proposed TTU/ FAPESP SPRINT research project will thus provide important insight into exact nonadiabatic dynamics far from the Born-Oppenheimer regime-while simultaneously paving the way for new approximations that can capture the proper physics, while being amenable to feasible computation. The project, moreover, also dovetails with the Brazilian PI's ongoing thematic FAPESP grant, "Dynamics of many body systems" (renewal pending) whose purpose is to investigate "collective behaviors of many-body systems" for which effective adiabatic-type approximations are also very important. Computational resources will be provided by TTU. (AU)