Prof. Anna Krylov: Into the Continuum

Owing to the progress in many-body theories and computer hardware,  quantum chemistry tools are now routinely used in chemistry and physics, providing both high-quality quantitative data (often rivaling the experimental measurements) and invaluable qualitative insights (crucial for interpretation of the experimental observations). Despite its success in treating a broad range of electronic structures, ranging from ground-state closed-shell molecules to excited states and strongly correlated systems, quantum chemistry is still lagging behind when electronically metastable states (i.e, resonances embedded in the ionization continuum) are concerned. This lecture  will provide a concise overview of the progress in extending quantum chemistry into the continuum. The main emphasis will be on exploring the ideas of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics within  the framework of  coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster theory. The need for theoretical tools for treating metastable states will be illustrated by examples.

Anna Krylov is a professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California. She received her MSc. (with honors) from the Moscow State University and her PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the Department of Chemistry at USC in 1998. She focuses on theoretical modelling of open-shell and electronically excited species, metastable electronic states (resonances) and tools for spectroscopy modeling. She is the president of Q-Chem Inc. and developer of Q-Chem.