Quantum Interference Effects in the Ultraviolet Photolysis of Ar−HCl Following Partial Fragmentation into H + Ar−Cl

Far from equilibrium percolation, stochastic and shape resonances in the physics of life

Key physical concepts, relevant for the cross-fertilization between condensed matter physics and the physics of life seen as a collective phenomenon in a system out-of-equilibrium, are discussed. The onset of life can be driven by: (a) the critical fluctuations at the protonic percolation threshold in membrane transport; (b) the stochastic resonance in biological systems, a mechanism that can exploit external and self-generated noise in order to gain efficiency in signal processing; and (c) the shape resonance (or Fano resonance or Feshbach resonance) in the association and dissociation processes of bio-molecules (a quantum mechanism that could play a key role to establish a macroscopic quantum coherence in the cell).

Wave packet study of the UV photodissociation of the Ar2HBr complex

The photodissociation dynamics of the Ar2HBr van der Waals molecule is studied using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method. Standard Jacobian coordinates are used to describe the molecule. Two four-dimensional calculations are carried out where the rotation of the Ar2 molecule and, in addition, either the vibration of Ar2-Br or that of Ar2 are frozen. The time-evolution of the probability density in the different modes and the calculation of the dissociative flux show that the dissociating hydrogen atom preferentially moves out of the plane defined by Ar2 and Br. A comprehensive study of the cage effect in the process is presented.

Photodissociation dynamics of the Kr-HBr cluster: the effect of the rare gas atom substitution

The ultraviolet photolysis dynamics of Kr-HBr(v=0) is investigated by means of wave packet calculations, focusing on the fragmentation pathway Kr-HBr+ variant Planck's over 2pi omega-->H+Kr-Br. Photolysis is simulated by starting from two different cluster initial states, namely the ground van der Waals (vdW) and an excited vdW bending state, associated with the Kr-H-Br and Kr-Br-H isomers, respectively. The results show that, for the two initial states of the cluster, the Kr-Br product yield is lower than that of Ar-Br radicals found in previous studies on Ar-HBr photolysis. Despite this decrease, the Kr-Br yield is found to be still rather high, in particular for the initial excited vdW state of Kr-HBr(v=0). In addition, the Kr-Br product state distributions exhibit a remarkably higher excitation (mainly rotational) than the corresponding Ar-Br distributions. The lower yield and higher excitation of Kr-Br as compared to Ar-Br, are attributed to a larger share of the energy available for the radical going to internal excitation in the case of the Kr-Br product. The different partition of the energy available for Kr-Br also causes significant deviations in the photolysis behavior of Kr-HBr when compared to that of Ar-HBr, in the case of the initial excited vdW state of both clusters. A common feature of the photodissociation of Kr-HBr and Ar-HBr is the manifestation of quantum interference effects in the Kr-Br and Ar-Br rotational state distributions, in the form of pronounced structures of supernumerary rotational rainbows.