Collision lifetimes of polyatomic molecules at low temperatures: Benzene–benzene vs benzene–rare gas atom collisions

Interactions of benzene, naphthalene, and azulene with alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms for ultracold studies

We consider collisional properties of polyatomic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules immersed into ultracold atomic gases and investigate intermolecular interactions of exemplary benzene, naphthalene, and azulene with alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs) and alkaline-earth-metal (Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba) atoms. We apply the state-of-the-art ab initio techniques to compute the potential energy surfaces (PESs). We use the coupled cluster method restricted to single, double, and noniterative triple excitations to reproduce the correlation energy and the small-core energy-consistent pseudopotentials to model the scalar relativistic effects in heavier metal atoms. We also report the leading long-range isotropic and anisotropic dispersion and induction interaction coefficients. The PESs are characterized in detail, and the nature of intermolecular interactions is analyzed and benchmarked using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory. The full three-dimensional PESs are provided for the selected systems within the atom-bond pairwise additive representation and can be employed in scattering calculations. The present study of the electronic structure is the first step toward the evaluation of prospects for sympathetic cooling of polyatomic aromatic molecules with ultracold atoms. We suggest azulene, an isomer of naphthalene which possesses a significant permanent electric dipole moment and optical transitions in the visible range, as a promising candidate for electric field manipulation and buffer-gas or sympathetic cooling.

Molecules and the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

We review a theory that predicts the onset of thermalization in a quantum mechanical coupled non-linear oscillator system, which models the vibrational degrees of freedom of a molecule. A system of N non-linear oscillators perturbed by cubic anharmonic interactions exhibits a many-body localization (MBL) transition in the vibrational state space (VSS) of the molecule. This transition can occur at rather high energy in a sizable molecule because the density of states coupled by cubic anharmonic terms scales as N³, in marked contrast to the total density of states, which scales as exp(aN), where a is a constant. The emergence of a MBL transition in the VSS is seen by analysis of a random matrix ensemble that captures the locality of coupling in the VSS, referred to as local random matrix theory (LRMT). Upon introducing higher order anharmonicity, the location of the MBL transition of even a sizable molecule, such as an organic molecule with tens of atoms, still lies at an energy that may exceed the energy to surmount a barrier to reaction, such as a barrier to conformational change. Illustrative calculations are provided, and some recent work on the influence of thermalization on thermal conduction in molecular junctions is also discussed.

Gaussian Process Model for Collision Dynamics of Complex Molecules

We show that a Gaussian process model can be combined with a small number (of order 100) of scattering calculations to provide a multidimensional dependence of scattering observables on the experimentally controllable parameters (such as the collision energy or temperature) as well as the potential energy surface (PES) parameters. For the case of Ar-C_{6}H_{6} collisions, we show that 200 classical trajectory calculations are sufficient to provide a ten-dimensional hypersurface, giving the dependence of the collision lifetimes on the collision energy, internal temperature, and eight PES parameters. This can be used for solving the inverse scattering problem, for the efficient calculation of thermally averaged observables, for reducing the error of the molecular dynamics calculations by averaging over the PES variations, and for the analysis of the sensitivity of the observables to individual parameters determining the PES. Trained by a combination of classical and quantum calculations, the model provides an accurate description of the quantum scattering cross sections, even near scattering resonances.

The study of basis sets for the calculation of the structure and dynamics of the benzene-Kr complex

An ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) has been constructed for the benzene-krypton (BKr) van der Waals (vdW) complex. The interaction energy has been calculated at the coupled cluster level of theory with single, double, and perturbatively included triple excitations using different basis sets. As a result, a few analytical PESs of the complex have been determined. They allowed a prediction of the complex structure and its vibrational vdW states. The vibrational energy level pattern exhibits a distinct polyad structure. Comparison of the equilibrium structure, the dipole moment, and vibrational levels of BKr with their experimental counterparts has allowed us to design an optimal basis set composed of a small Dunning's basis set for the benzene monomer, a larger effective core potential adapted basis set for Kr and additional midbond functions. Such a basis set yields vibrational energy levels that agree very well with the experimental ones as well as with those calculated from the available empirical PES derived from the microwave spectra of the BKr complex. The basis proposed can be applied to larger complexes including Kr because of a reasonable computational cost and accurate results.