The results of a theoretical investigation of coherent π-electron dynamics for nonplanar (P)-2,2′-biphenol induced by ultrashort linearly polarized UV pulses are presented. Expressions for the time-dependent coherent angular momentum and ring current are derived by using the density matrix method. The time dependence of these coherences is determined by the off-diagonal density matrix element, which can be obtained by solving the coupled equations of motion of the electronic-state density matrix. Dephasing effects on coherent angular momentum and ring current are taken into account within the Markov approximation. The magnitudes of the electronic angular momentum and current are expressed as the sum of expectation values of the corresponding operators in the two phenol rings (L and R rings). Here, L (R) denotes the phenol ring in the left (right)-hand side of (P)-2,2′-biphenol. We define the bond current between the nearest neighbor carbon atoms C_i and C_j as an electric current through a half plane perpendicular to the C_i–C_j bond. The bond current can be expressed in terms of the inter-atomic bond current. The inter-atomic bond current (bond current) depends on the position of the half plane on the bond and has the maximum value at the center. The coherent ring current in each ring is defined by averaging over the bond currents. Since (P)-2,2′-biphenol is nonplanar, the resultant angular momentum is not one-dimensional. Simulations of the time-dependent coherent angular momentum and ring current of (P)-2,2′-biphenol excited by ultrashort linearly polarized UV pulses are carried out using the molecular parameters obtained by the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) method. Oscillatory behaviors in the time-dependent angular momentum (ring current), which can be called angular momentum (ring current) quantum beats, are classified by the symmetry of the coherent state, symmetric or antisymmetric. The bond current of the bridge bond linking the L and R rings is zero for the symmetric coherent state, while it is nonzero for the antisymmetric coherent state. The magnitudes of ring current and ring current-induced magnetic field are also evaluated, and their possibility as a control parameter in ultrafast switching devices is discussed. The present results give a detailed description of the theoretical treatment reported in our previous paper [H. Mineo, M. Yamaki, Y. Teranish, M. Hayashi, S. H. Lin, and Y. Fujimura, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 14279 (2012)].

Quark light cone momentum distributions in the nucleon are calculated in a relativistic three-body approach to the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model by using a simple “static approximation” for the Faddeev kernel. A method is presented which automatically satisfies the number and momentum sum rules, even in the regularized theory. In order to assess the sensitivity to the regularization scheme, two schemes which can be formulated in terms of light cone variables are discussed. The effects of the (composite) pion cloud are taken into account in a convolution approach, and the violation of the Gottfried sum rule is discussed. After performing the $Q^2$ evolution, the resulting distributions are compared to the empirical ones.