Time evolution of the nonadiabatic nonlinear quantum dimer

A theory of coalescence of signaling receptor clusters in immune cells

A theory of coalescence of signal receptor clusters in mast cells is developed in close connection with experiments. It is based on general considerations involving a feedback procedure and a time-dependent capture as part of a reaction-diffusion process. Characteristic features of observations that need to be explained are indicated and it is shown why calculations available in the literature are not satisfactory. While the latter involves static centers at which the reaction part of the phenomenon occurs, by its very nature, coalescence involves dynamically evolving centers. This is so because the process continuously modifies the size of the cluster aggregate which then proceeds to capture more material. We develop a procedure that consists of first solving a static reaction-diffusion problem and then imbuing the center with changing size. The consequence is a dependence of the size of the signal receptor cluster aggregate on time. A preliminary comparison with experiment is shown to reveal a sharp difference between theory and data. The observation indicates that the reaction occurs slowly at first and then picks up rapidly as time proceeds. Parameter modification to fit the observations cannot solve the problem. We use this observation to build into the theory an accumulation rate that is itself dependent on time. A memory representation and its physical basis are explained. The consequence is a theory that can be fit to observations successfully.

Dynamics of exciton-polaron transition in molecular assemblies: the variational approach

Dynamics of excitonic polaron formation in molecular systems coupled to an overdamped bath are investigated using the Dirac-Frenkel variational principle and Davydov D1 Ansatz. Using a two-site model system we show that a few qualitatively distinct relaxation regimes of an optically created exciton are possible, depending on the timescale of bath fluctuations. A slow bath always leads to adiabatic polaron formation. Non-adiabatic exciton self-trapping occurs when the system is strongly coupled to a fast bath. Weak coupling to such bath does not perturb the excitonic picture. The complex system-bath dynamics can then be mapped to an effective model where the resonant coupling between sites is quenched during relaxation. The timescale of the polaron formation can be defined by the timescale of resonant coupling quenching, and is found to directly correlate with the bath relaxation time.

Wave-packet spreading dynamics under a noninstantaneous nonlinearity: self-trapping, defocusing, and focusing

Special localized wave modes show up in several physical scenarios including BEC in optical lattices, nonlinear photonic crystals, and systems with strong electron-phonon interaction. These result from an underlying nonlinear contribution to the wave equation that is usually assumed to be instantaneous. Here we demonstrate that the relaxation process of the nonlinearity has a profound impact in the wave-packet dynamics and in the formation of localized modes. We illustrate this phenomenology by considering the one-electron wave packet spreading in a C60 buckball structure whose dynamics is governed by a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation with a Debye relaxation of the nonlinearity. We report the full phase diagram related to the spacial extension of the asymptotic wave packet and unveil a complex wave-packet dynamical behavior.

Wave-packet dynamics in chains with delayed electronic nonlinear response

We study the dynamics of one electron wave packet in a chain with a nonadiabatic electron-phonon interaction. The electron-phonon coupling is taken into account in the time-dependent Schrödinger equation by a delayed cubic nonlinearity. In the limit of an adiabatic coupling, the self-trapping phenomenon occurs when the nonlinearity parameter exceeds a critical value of the order of the bandwidth. We show that a weaker nonlinearity is required to produce self-trapping in the regime of short delay times. However, this trend is reversed for slow nonlinear responses, resulting in a reentrant phase diagram. In slowly responding media, self-trapping only takes place for very strong nonlinearities.