Multidimensional Quantum Tunneling: Direct Instanton Calculation with Application to Polyatomic Molecules Speaker: Professor Jing Shi, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Friday Dec. 1, 3:30pm at REC315 abstract. Quantum tunneling plays a crucial role at the nano scale. Multidimensional tunneling appears in the study of many problems ranging from quantum field to enzyme catalysis. The high dimensionality of the potential energy surface (e.g. many degrees of freedom) poses a great challenge in both theoretical and numerical description of tunneling. Numerical simulation based on Schrodinger equation is often prohibitvely expensive. We propose an efficient and accurate numerical method to calculate the ground state tunneling splitting and decay rate. The method is based on path integral formalism ('instanton' and 'bounce' approach) and free from any further ad hoc assumptions on potential energy surface. The application to proton tunneling between isomers of polyatomic molecule is demonstrated. -- **************************************************************** Professor http://www.math.purdue.edu/~shen Department of Mathematics tel: 1-765-494-1923 Purdue University fax: 1-765-494-0548 West Lafayette, IN 47907 e-mail: shen@math.purdue.edu ***************************************************************