Quantum persistent tennis racket dynamics of nanorotors

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum rotations of nanorotors, revealing persistent tennis racket flipping due to quantum tunnelling, contrasting classical instability and offering new avenues for quantum control of rotational states.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum tunnelling induces persistent tennis racket dynamics in nanorotors, a phenomenon absent in classical rotations, highlighting quantum effects in rotational degrees of freedom.

Findings

Quantum tunnelling causes persistent flipping in nanorotors.

Quantum coherent flipping persists with millions of angular momentum states.

Contrasts classical instability with quantum stability in rotational dynamics.

Abstract

Classical rotations of asymmetric rigid bodies are unstable around the axis of intermediate momentof inertia, causing a flipping of rotor orientation. This effect, known as the tennis racket effect,quickly averages to zero in classical ensembles since the flipping period varies significantly uponapproaching the separatrix. Here, we explore the quantum rotations of rapidly spinning thermalasymmetric nanorotors and show that classically forbidden tunnelling gives rise to persistent tennisracket dynamics, in stark contrast to the classical expectation. We characterise this effect, demon-strating that quantum coherent flipping dynamics can persist even in the regime where millions ofangular momentum states are occupied. This persistent flipping offers a promising route for observ-ing and exploiting quantum effects in rotational degrees of freedom for molecules and nanoparticles.