Methyl rotation in acetamide: the transition from quantum mechanical tunneling to classical reorientation studied by inelastic neutron scattering

Magnetic excitation and readout of methyl group tunnel coherence

Methyl groups are ubiquitous in synthetic materials and biomolecules. At sufficiently low temperature, they behave as quantum rotors and populate only the rotational ground state. In a symmetric potential, the three localized substates are degenerate and become mixed by the tunnel overlap to delocalized states separated by the tunnel splitting ν _t . Although ν _t can be inferred by several techniques, coherent superposition of the tunnel-split states and direct measurement of ν _t have proven elusive. Here, we show that a nearby electron spin provides a handle on the tunnel transition, allowing for its excitation and readout. Unlike existing dynamical nuclear polarization techniques, our experiment transfers polarization from the electron spin to methyl proton spins with an efficiency that is independent of the magnetic field and does not rely on an unusually large tunnel splitting. Our results also demonstrate control of quantum states despite the lack of an associated transition dipole moment.

Molecular flexibility and structural instabilities in crystalline l-methionine

We have investigated the dynamics in polycrystalline samples of l-methionine related to the structural transition at about 307K by incoherent inelastic and quasielastic neutron scattering, X-ray powder diffraction as well as ab-initio calculations. l-Methionine is a sulfur amino acid which can be considered a derivative of alanine with the alanine R-group CH3 exchanged by CH3S(CH2)2. Using X-ray powder diffraction we have observed at ~190K an anomalous drop of the c-lattice parameter and an abrupt change of the β-monoclinic angle that could be correlated to the anomalies observed in previous specific heat measurements. Distinct changes in the quasielastic region of the neutron spectra are interpreted as being due to the onset and slowing-down of reorientational motions of the CH3-S group, are clearly distinguished above 130K in crystalline l-methionine. Large-amplitude motions observed at low frequencies are also activated above 275K, while other well-defined vibrations are damped. The ensemble of our results suggests that the crystalline structure of l-methionine is dynamically highly disordered above 275K, and such disorder can be linked to the flexibility of the molecular thiol-ether group.

Unification of the quantum and classical theories of methyl NMR

The existing low and high temperature theories of methyl NMR are not linked because two conditions imposed on state functions in the low temperature theory are not compatible with the classical rotations on which the high temperature theory is based. The conditions do not occur in a geometrical theory of quantum phenomena in which particles and waves have separate roles. When applied to methyl dynamics, this theory covers the whole temperature range.

NMR and relative quantum theory

Assumptions on which NMR dynamical studies have been based for nearly 50 years are consistent with a relative quantum theory based on Minkowski spacetime. A symmetry condition required by the existence of reference frames takes over the usual role of particle permutation symmetry, leaving a quantum theory of relative motion which only involves observables.