Joint CMSP-QLS Seminars: Shamik Gupta & Daniel M. Shadrack, 24 July 14:00-16:00

[CMSP Seminars Secretariat]

Dear All,

On *Monday, 24 July from 14:00 to 16:00*, the CMSP and QLS Section will 
host two seminars, taking place in the *L. Stasi seminar room *(Leonardo 
building, first floor).

Indico webpages: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10424/ and 
https://indico.ictp.it/event/10427/

You are all most welcome to attend!

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14:00-15:00 Shamik Gupta (Department of Theoretical Physics, Tata 
Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai)
Title: Quantum unitary evolution interspersed with repeated non-unitary 
interactions at random times

Abstract:

We address the issue of what happens when the unitary evolution of a 
generic closed quantum system is interrupted at random times with 
non-unitary evolution due to interactions with either the external 
environment or a measuring apparatus. We adduce a general theoretical 
framework to obtain the average density operator of the system at any 
time during the dynamical evolution, which is applicable to any form of 
non-unitary interaction. We provide two explicit applications of the 
formalism in the context of the so-called tight-binding model relevant 
in various contexts in solid-state physics, for two representative forms 
of interactions: (i) stochastic resets, whereby the density operator is 
at random times reset to its initial form, and (ii) projective 
measurements at random times. For (i), we demonstrate with our exact 
results how the particle is localized on the sites at long times, 
leading to a time-independent mean-squared displacement of the particle 
about its initial location. For (ii), we show that repeated projection 
to the initial state of the particle results in an effective suppression 
of the temporal decay in the probability of the particle to be found on 
the initial state. The amount of suppression is comparable to the one in 
conventional Zeno effect scenarios, but which does not require to 
perform measurements at exactly regular intervals that are hallmarks of 
such scenarios.

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15:00-16:00 Daniel M. Shadrack (The Nelson Mandela African Institution 
of Science and Technology & St John’s University of Tanzania)

Title: The fascinating journey of some natural products: From insilico 
experiments to the community

Abstract:
Natural products have long been a valuable resource for medicine, 
significantly contributing to pharmacotherapy. However, harnessing their 
potential in drug discovery poses various challenges, including 
understanding their mechanism of action. To address these obstacles, 
computer simulations have emerged as powerful tools that expedite the 
discovery of natural products. This talk provides an overview of natural 
products and the role of computational techniques in drug design. It 
delves into several success stories involving the development of our 
in-silico pipeline and its quantifiable contributions to discovering 
natural products. Furthermore, noteworthy herbal medicines uncovered by 
our pipeline, explored in the medical community for treating enlarged 
prostate (BPH), will also be highlighted.
Reference
1. J. Nat. Prod. 2020, 83, 3, 770–803
2. Neurotoxicology. 2023, 94, 147-157