Prof. Dr. Yoshitaka Tanimura

Kyoto University
Statistical Physics/Chemical Physics

External Senior Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow)
February 2014 – March 2014

Last Update: 31.08.2014

Curriculum Vitae

Yoshitaka Tanimura received his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor Ryogo Kubo at Department of Physics from Keio University in 1989. He was at the University of Illinois and the University of Rochester as a postdoctoral fellow of Professor Peter G. Wolynes and Professor Shaul Mukamel, respectively. Then he spent nine years as associate professor at the Institute for Molecular Science before joining the faculty at Kyoto University in 2003. Research in his group is broadly concerned with the dynamic theory of processes of chemical interest in condensed matter. He developed theoretical descriptions and simulation methods to explore nonMarkovian and non-perturbative dissipative dynamics based on the reduced hierarchy equations of motion and path integral formulation to investigate tunneling phenomena, electron transfer reactions, and ultrafast nonlinear optical spectroscopy of molecular system in condensed-phase and biological systems. Based upon one of his expressions, he proposed high order multidimensional vibrational spectroscopy in 1993. This spectroscopy gives direct information on the anharmonic motions of molecules and provides a unique probe of quantum dynamics in condensed phase. This work stimulated an entirely new field of spectroscopy.

Selected Publications

A. Sakurai and Y. Tanimura, An Approach to Quantum Transport Based on Reduced Hierarchy Equations of Motion: Application to a Resonant Tunneling Diode, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 82, 033707 (2013).
Y. Tanimura and A. Ishizaki, Modeling, Calculating, and Analyzing Multidimensional Vibrational Spectroscopies, Acc. Chem. Res. 42, 1270 (2009).
Y. Tanimura, Stochastic Liouville, Langevin, Fokker-Planck, and master equation approaches to quantum dissipative systems, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 75, 082001 (2006).
Y. Tanimura and P. G. Wolynes, “Quantum and classical Fokker-Planck equations for a Gaussian-Markovian noise bath,” Phys. Rev. A43, 4131 (1991).
Y. Tanimura and R. Kubo, “Time evolution of a quantum system in contact with a nearly Gaussian-Markoffian noise bath,” J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 58, 101 (1989).

FRIAS Project

Reduced Hierarchy equation motion approach to quantum transport

Quantum transport phenomena will be investigated from reduced hierarchy equations motion (HEOM) approach in Wigner space representation. Interplay between quantum phenomena and environment will be explored in nonMarkovian and nonperturbative regime. Various applications of the hierarchy equation of motion approach, including quantum ratchet, resonant tunneling diode, electron and exciton transfer, and quantum information problems will be studied. The source code of HEOM in Wigner space representation will be distributed in public after initiating the above mentioned subjects.