Intramolecular Primary Processes between Yoctoseconds and Days and Fundamental Symmetry Violations from High Resolution Spectroscopy
Martin Quack
Laboratorium für Physikalische Chemie, ETH Zürich
17:15 - 18:15 Tuesday 10 January 2012 TUG P2 The formerly revolutionary experimental concept of deriving short time chemical kinetics pioneered by Eigen, and Norrish and Porter after 1950 consists in a short time physical perturbation (for instance by a short light pulse, or particle pulse or similar) and subsequent time resolved detection of some physical observable (for instance time resolved light absorption or other (see [2-6] for a summary including historical aspects).
We have in Zürich after 1980 developed an alternative experimental approach towards shorttime quantum molecular kinetics, which starts from non-time resolved high resolution spectroscopy and allows us to study primary processes down to the femtosecond and attosecond regime and potentially even shorter times (see [4–6] for a summary of this approach).
In the lecture we shall briefly present the foundations of the experimental approach also comparing with some recent results using the more conventional pump-probe kinetics techniques. We then shall discuss in some detail current work describing a great variety of time scales for primary processes in terms of successive symmetry breakings as a fundamental ordering principle. A particularly interesting current example is the time dependent process of parity violation in chiral molecules mediated by the Z-Boson and thus connecting the sub-yoctosecond time domain with processes on the time scales of seconds [7, 8]. If time permits, we shall conclude with some speculations on fundamental consequences of parity violation for possible origins of particle masses including dark matter, as well as on hypothetical experiments on CPT violation [8].
References
[1] Abstract Lecture Graz, 10 January 2012
[2] M. Eigen, Die unmessbar schnellen Reaktionen (Ostwalds Klassiker der exakten
Naturwissenschaften), Vol. 281, Harri Deutsch, Thun und Frankfurt, (1996).
[3] G. Porter, Flash photolysis into the femtosecond - a race against time, Chapt. 1, in Femtosecond Chemistry, Vol. 1 (Eds.: J. Manz, L. Woeste), Verlag Chemie, Weinheim (1995), pp. 3-13.
[4] M. Quack, Molecular femtosecond quantum dynamics between less than yoctoseconds and more than days: Experiment and theory, Chapt. 27, in Femtosecond Chemistry, Proc. Berlin Conf. Femtosecond Chemistry, Berlin (March 1993) (Eds.: J. Manz, L. Woeste), Verlag Chemie, Weinheim (1995), pp. 781-818.
[5] M. Quack, Chimia 55, 753-758 (2001).
[6] M. Quack, Chimia 57, 147-160 (2003).
[7] M. Quack, J. Stohner, M. Willeke, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 59, 741-769 (2008).
[8] M. Quack, Fundamental Symmetries and Symmetry Violations from High Resolution Spectroscopy, Chapt. 18, in Handbook of High Resolution Spectroscopy, Vol. 1 (Eds.:
M. Quack, F. Merkt), Wiley, Chichester, New York, (2011), pp. 659-722.
|
