529-0442-00L  Advanced Kinetics

SemesterSpring Semester 2019
LecturersH. J. Wörner, J. Richardson
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish


AbstractThis lecture covers the theoretical foundations of quantum dynamics and its application to chemical reaction kinetics. In the second part the experimental methods of time-resolved molecular spectroscopy are introduced.
ObjectiveThis lecture provides the conceptual foundations of chemical reaction dynamics and shows how primary molecular processes can be studied by theoretical simulation and experiment.
ContentIn the first part, the theory of quantum dynamics is derived from the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The theory is illustrated with molecular examples including tunnelling, recurrences, nonadiabatic crossings. A rigorous rate theory is obtained both from a quantum-mechanical picture as well as within the classical approximation. The approximations leading to conventional transition-state theory for polyatomic reactions are discussed.
In this way, relaxation and irreversibility will be explained which are at the foundation of statistical mechanics.

In the second part, three-dimensional scattering theory is introduced and applied to discuss molecular collisions and photoionization. Experimental techniques for the study of photochemical primary processes, photochemical reactions and chemical reaction dynamics are introduced (time-resolved spectroscopies on nano- to attosecond time scales, molecular beam methods). Finally, the quantum dynamics of systems with a very large number of quantum states are discussed, introducing the Pauli equations and the Pauli entropy.
Lecture notesWill be available online.
LiteratureD. J. Tannor, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: A Time-Dependent Perspective
R. D. Levine, Molecular Reaction Dynamics
S. Mukamel, Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy
Z. Chang, Fundamentals of Attosecond Optics
Prerequisites / Notice529-0422-00L Physical Chemistry II: Chemical Reaction Dynamics