Bridging Polaritonic Chemistry and Spin Glass Physics with Novel Functionals?

by Dr Dominik Sidler (PSI/LMS)

Wednesday 11 Jun 2025, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Zurich

OVGA/200

Polaritonic chemistry has garnered increasing attention in recent years due to pioneering experimental results, which show that site- and bond-selective chemistry at room temperature is achievable through strong collective coupling to field fluctuations in optical cavities. Despite these notable experimental strides, the underlying theoretical mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we establish a fundamental theoretical connection between polaritonic chemistry and spin glasses. Specifically, we present a mapping of the dressed many-molecules electronic-structure problem to the spherical Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SSK) model of a spin glass. This mapping reveals a collectively induced instability of the intermolecular electron correlations, which aligns with experimental observations and suggests novel computational directions. Ultimately, our mapping also offers fresh insights into the applicability of spin glass theory beyond condensed matter systems.