Electron impact fragmentation of adenine: partial ionization cross sections for positive fragments

Using computer-controlled data acquisition we have measured mass spectra of positive ions for electron impact on adenine, with electron energies up to 100 eV. Ion yield curves for 50 ions have been obtained and normalized by comparing their sum to the average of calculated total ionization cross sections. Appearance energies have been determined for 37 ions; for 20 ions for the first time. All appearance energies are consistent with the fragmentation pathways identified in the literature. Second onset energies have been determined for 12 fragment ions (for 11 ions for the first time), indicating the occurrence of more than one fragmentation process e.g. for 39 u (C2HN+) and 70 u (C2H4N3+). Matching ion yield shapes (118–120 u, 107–108 u, 91–92 u, and 54–56 u) provide new evidence supporting closely related fragmentation pathways and are attributed to hydrogen rearrangement immediately preceding the fragmentation. We present the first measurement of the ion yield curve of the doubly charged parent ion (67.5 u), with an appearance energy of 23.5 ± 1.0 eV

Early Events in the Nonadiabatic Relaxation Dynamics of 4‑(N,N‑Dimethylamino)benzonitrile

4-(N,N-Dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMABN) is the archetypal system for dual fluorescence. Several past studies, both experimental and theoretical, have examined the mechanism of its relaxation in the gas phase following photoexcitation to the S2 state, without converging to a single description. In this contribution, we report first-principles simulations of the early events involved in this process performed using the nonadiabatic trajectory surface hopping (TSH) approach in combination with the ADC(2) electronic structure method. ADC(2) is verified to reproduce the ground- and excited-state structures of DMABN in reasonably close agreement with previous theoretical benchmarks. The TSH simulations predict that internal conversion from the S2 state to the S1 takes place as early as 8.5 fs, on average, after the initial photoexcitation, and with no significant torsion of the dimethylamino group relative to the aromatic ring. As evidenced by supporting EOM-CCSD calculations, the population transfer from S2 to S1 can be attributed to the skeletal deformation modes of the aromatic ring and the stretching of the ring-dimethylamino nitrogen bond. The non- or slightly twisted locally excited structure is the predominant product of the internal conversion, and the twisted intramolecular charge transfer structure is formed through equilibration with the locally excited structure with no change of adiabatic state. These findings point toward a new interpretation of data from previous time-resolved experiments

DNA Photodamage and Repair: Computational Photobiology in Action

International audienc

Analogue Gravity

Analogue models of (and for) gravity have a long and distinguished history dating back to the earliest years of general relativity. In this review article we will discuss the history, aims, results, and future prospects for the various analogue models. We start the discussion by presenting a particularly simple example of an analogue model, before exploring the rich history and complex tapestry of models discussed in the literature. The last decade in particular has seen a remarkable and sustained development of analogue gravity ideas, leading to some hundreds of published articles, a workshop, two books, and this review article. Future prospects for the analogue gravity programme also look promising, both on the experimental front (where technology is rapidly advancing) and on the theoretical front (where variants of analogue models can be used as a springboard for radical attacks on the problem of quantum gravity)