Quantum Control of Protein Dynamics
Robert H. Austin
Department of Physics, Princeton University
Recently there has been a revolution in the field of coherently controlling energy flow in molecules, a process also called Quantum Control. Pioneering work at Princeton by quantum chemical theorist Herschel Rabitz has shown that by controlling the phase of a fs to ps optical pulse across the spectral bandwidth of the pulse it is possible change the quantum yield of photophysical processes by factors of up to 10.This work has been done primarily in small molecules in the visible at harmonic frequencies of the TiLS laser. Our purpose in this talk is to discuss three fundamental questions: Can quantum control technology and modeling be used on large molecules such as proteins, can quantum control techniques be applied over a wide range of optical frequencies, including the infrared, and can we drive the conformational dynamics of proteins into desired functional states? Given the remarkable and unexpected success of quantum control techniques we think this program should be explored because of the revolutionary results it could achieve.
