LOCAL CONTROL THEORY: RECENT APPLICATIONS TO ENERGY AND PARTICLE TRANSFER PROCESSES IN MOLECULES

In this chapter we have reviewed selected applications of Local Control Theory (LCT) to the control of processes taking place in molecules. The scheme rests on the construction of electric fields taking the instantaneous response of a perturbed system into account. In the simplest version, this is done by calculating the rate of an observable and the fields are adjusted to either increase or decrease this rate, depending on which objective is chosen. From the given examples, it is revealed that the construction scheme is successful and easy to implement in a calculation. We have emphasized that the emerging fields can be interpreted in a straightforward way, often leading to a simple classical understanding of the underlying physics which determines the properties of the field and thus the outcome of the control process. These obvious advantages suggest that other applications will be presented in the future. For example, preliminary work has shown that LCT can be applied to problems in quantum computing [51]. Here, the present approach could open new perspectives. Also, it is interesting to address the question of how the scheme can be realized experimentally. We are optimistic that there are many more interesting problems that can be treated using the local control scheme, and we hope that the present compilation of work will stimulate research in that direction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.