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Chin. Phys. B, 2025, Vol. 34(8): 080507    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/adcea0
Special Issue:
SPECIAL TOPIC — A celebration of the 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Bolin Hao Prev   Next  

Spiral trajectories of asymmetric molecules

Nan Sheng(盛楠)1,†, Shiqi Sheng(盛世奇)2,†, Yu-Song Tu(涂育松)3, Rong-Zheng Wan(万荣正)4, Zuo-Wei Wang(王作维)5, Zhanchun Tu(涂展春)6,§, and Hai-Ping Fang(方海平)2,‡
1 Shanghai Yonovate Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200062, China;
2 School of Physics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China;
3 College of Physics Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Jiangsu 225009, China;
4 Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, China;
5 School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AX, United Kingdom;
6 School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Abstract  Spiral patterns widely exist in both macroscopic and microscopic systems such as hearts, bacteria, and active matters but have never been reported at molecular length scale. The emergence of spiral patterns has considerable impacts on the trajectories of the objects and thus usually relates to various physical, chemical, biological and physiological processes. In this paper, we show that, down to the length scale of only several Angstroms, asymmetric molecules exhibit spiral patterns in their trajectories within finite time based on the under-damped Langevin equation and demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulation. The key to this observation lies in the asymmetric molecular architecture that leads to a translation-rotation coupling. This finding enriches the knowledge of spiral patterns to the molecular length scale, provides a new insight into the understanding of various processes at the molecular level, and may evoke new ideas on the understanding of the vortices in turbulence.
Keywords:  spiral pattern      asymmetric molecule      under-damped Langevin equation      translation-rotation coupling  
Received:  11 March 2025      Revised:  09 April 2025      Accepted manuscript online:  21 April 2025
PACS:  05.40.Jc (Brownian motion)  
  02.70.Ns (Molecular dynamics and particle methods)  
  34.10.+x (General theories and models of atomic and molecular collisions and interactions (including statistical theories, transition state, stochastic and trajectory models, etc.))  
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12475032 and 12005062), the Supercomputing Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Snowlake Technology Co., Ltd., and the Shanghai Super-Computer Center of China.
Corresponding Authors:  Hai-Ping Fang, Zhanchun Tu     E-mail:  fanghaiping@ecust.edu.cn;tuzc@bnu.edu.cn

Cite this article: 

Nan Sheng(盛楠), Shiqi Sheng(盛世奇), Yu-Song Tu(涂育松), Rong-Zheng Wan(万荣正), Zuo-Wei Wang(王作维), Zhanchun Tu(涂展春), and Hai-Ping Fang(方海平) Spiral trajectories of asymmetric molecules 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 080507

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