McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Physical Society Colloquium

Interview for Faculty Position

Quantum mechanical methods for complex systems and their applications

GuanHua Chen

University of Hong Kong

Order-N quantum mechanical methods have been developed to calculate the properties of complex systems such as nanomaterials and biomolecules. Their computational times scale linearly with the system sizes. In this talk, I will discuss the order-N methods for both ground and excited states. Two examples will be given to demonstrate the power of the order-N methods. One is the carbon nanotube. An order-N quantum mechanical method has been used to study the field emission mechanism of nanotubes. The induced charge distribution of a micrometer-long nanotube under strong external fields is calculated quantum mechanically, and a novel field emission mechanism is revealed. Another example is the light harvesting system 2. An order-N quantum mechanical method for the excited states is employed to calculate its low-lying excited state spectrum. Based on the calculated results, energy transfer mechanism in light harvesting system 2 will be discussed.

Thursday, February 17th 2005, 15:30
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)