Boltzmann distribution relaxation

As the temperature is further lowered, the natural processes that maintain the Boltzmann distribution (relaxation processes) may be no longer able to keep up with the rate of transitions induced by the microwave radiation. Power saturation leads to a decrease in signal at low temperatures and high levels of microwave power. Because the rate and temperature dependence of relaxation processes is very different in different systems, different paramagnetic species saturate at different levels of power and are best observed at different temperatures. Organic radicals are best observed at relatively high temperature and low levels of power transition metals, especially in systems in which S > 7, are usually observed at cryogenic temperatures because of their rapid relaxation rates. 

There is one other type of relaxation process that must be mentioned at this point. After irradiation ceases and B, disappears, not only do the populations of the m = + and m = states revert to the Boltzmann distribution, but also the individual nuclear magnetic moments begin to lose their phase coherence and return to a random arrangement around the z axis (Figure 2.1a). This latter process, called spin-spin (or transverse) relaxation, causes decay of MJ>y at a rate controlled by the spin-spin relaxation time T2. Normally, T2 is much shorter than T. A little thought should convince you that if T2 < Th then spin-spin (dephasing) relaxation takes place much faster than spin-lattice (Boltzmann distribution) relaxation. 

Relaxation refers to all processes which regenerate the Boltzmann distribution of nuclear spins on their precession states and the resulting equilibrium magnetisation along the static magnetic field. Relaxation also destroys the transverse magnetisation arising from phase coherenee of nuelear spins built up upon NMR excitation. 

Spin-lattice relaxation is the steady (exponential) build-up or regeneration of the Boltzmann distribution (equilibrium magnetisation) of nuelear spins in the static magnetic field. The lattice is the molecular environment of the nuclear spin with whieh energy is exchanged. 

Block relaxation, 61 Bogoliubov, N., 322,361 Boltzmann distribution, 471 Boltzmann equation Burnett method of solution, 25 Chapman-Enskog method of solution, 24... 

Boltzmann distribution 13 change of average z projection 17 change per collision 18-19 correlation functions 12, 25-7, 28 calculation 14-15 correlation times quasi-free rotation 218 various molecules 69 and energy relaxation 164-6 impact theory 92 torque 18-19, 27... 

Methods of disturbing the Boltzmann distribution of nuclear spin states were known long before the phenomenon of CIDNP was recognized. All of these involve multiple resonance techniques (e.g. INDOR, the Nuclear Overhauser Effect) and all depend on spin-lattice relaxation processes for the development of polarization. The effect is referred to as dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) (for a review, see Hausser and Stehlik, 1968). The observed changes in the intensity of lines in the n.m.r. spectrum are small, however, reflecting the small changes induced in the Boltzmann distribution. 

For all known cases of iron-sulfur proteins, J > 0, meaning that the system is antiferromagnetically coupled through the Fe-S-Fe moiety. Equation (4) produces a series of levels, each characterized by a total spin S, with an associated energy, which are populated according to the Boltzmann distribution. Note that for each S level there is in principle an electron relaxation time. For most purposes it is convenient to refer to an effective relaxation time for the whole cluster. 

If the radiofrequency power is too high, the normal relaxation processes will not be able to compete with the sudden excitation (or perturbation), and thermal equilibrium will not be achieved. The population difference (Boltzmann distribution excess) between the energy levels (a and )8) will decrease to zero, and the intensity of the absorption signal will also therefore become zero. 

One may also show that MPC dynamics satisfies an H theorem and that any initial velocity distribution will relax to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution [11]. Figure 2 shows simulation results for the velocity distribution function that confirm this result. In the simulation, the particles were initially uniformly distributed in the volume and had the same speed v = 1 but different random directions. After a relatively short transient the distribution function adopts the Maxwell-Boltzmann form shown in the figure. 

If the conditions for Forster transfer are not applicable, then the theory must be extended. There is recently experimental evidence that coherent energy transfer participates in photosynthesis [74, 75], In this case, the participating molecules are very close together. The excited state of the donor does not completely relax to the Boltzmann distribution before the energy can be shared with the acceptor, and the transfer can no longer be described by a Forster mechanism. We will not discuss this case. There has been active discussion of coherent transfer and very strong interactions in the literature for a longer time [69], and references can be found in some more recent papers [70-72, 76, 77],... 

Just as above, we can derive expressions for any fluorescence lifetime for any number of pathways. In this chapter we limit our discussion to cases where the excited molecules have relaxed to their lowest excited-state vibrational level by internal conversion (ic) before pursuing any other de-excitation pathway (see the Perrin-Jablonski diagram in Fig. 1.4). This means we do not consider coherent effects whereby the molecule decays, or transfers energy, from a higher excited state, or from a non-Boltzmann distribution of vibrational levels, before coming to steady-state equilibrium in its ground electronic state (see Section 1.2.2). Internal conversion only takes a few picoseconds, or less [82-84, 106]. In the case of incoherent decay, the method of excitation does not play a role in the decay by any of the pathways from the excited state the excitation scheme is only peculiar to the method we choose to measure the fluorescence (Sections 1.7-1.11). 

In metalloproteins, the paramagnet is an inseparable part of the native biomacromolecule, and so anisotropy in the metal EPR is not averaged away in aqueous solution at ambient temperatures. This opens the way to study metalloprotein EPR under conditions that would seem to approach those of the physiology of the cell more closely than when using frozen aqueous solutions. Still the number of papers describing metalloprotein bioEPR studies in the frozen state by far outnumbers studies in the liquid state. Several additional theoretical and practical problems are related to the latter (1) increased spin-lattice relaxation rate, (2) (bio)chemical reactivity, (3) unfavorable Boltzmann distributions, (4) limited tumbling rates, and (5) undefined g-strain. 

This fact allows the effective relaxation of steric repulsion. The potential barrier for the motion around the C—C single bonds is smaller than that corresponding to the motion around the central C=C bond. Using the potential functions computed for these motions, and assuming a Boltzmann distribution, average torsional angles of 7.7 and 7.1, at 300 K, are obtained for rotations around Cl—C3 and C1=C2, respectively. This torsional motion seems to be due to the nonplanar structure observed experimentally. 

Relaxation is an inherent property of all nuclear spins. There are two predominant types of relaxation processes in NMR of liquids. These relaxation processes are denoted by the longitudinal (Ti) and transverse (T2) relaxation time constants. When a sample is excited from its thermal equihbrium with an RF pulse, its tendency is to relax back to its Boltzmann distribution. The amount of time to re-equilibrate is typically on the order of seconds to minutes. T, and T2 relaxation processes operate simultaneously. The recovery of magnetization to the equilibrium state along the z-axis is longitudinal or the 7 relaxation time. The loss of coherence of the ensemble of excited spins (uniform distribution) in the x-, y-plane following the completion of a pulse is transverse or T2... 

Little is known about the fluorescence of the chla spectral forms. It was recently suggested, on the basis of gaussian curve analysis combined with band calculations, that each of the spectral forms of PSII antenna has a separate emission, with Stokes shifts between 2nm and 3nm [133]. These values are much smaller than those for chla in non-polar solvents (6-8 nm). This is due to the narrow band widths of the spectral forms, as the shift is determined by the absorption band width for thermally relaxed excited states [157]. The fluorescence rate constants are expected to be rather similar for the different forms as their gaussian band widths are similar [71], It is thought that the fluorescence yields are also probably rather similar as the emission of the sj tral forms is closely approximated by a Boltzmann distribution at room temperature for both LHCII and total PSII antenna [71, 133]. 

Readout of the ligand information by a substrate is achieved at the rates with which L and S associate and dissociate it is thus determined by the complexation dynamics. In a mixture of ligands Li, L2. .. L and substrates Si, S2. . - S , information readout may assume a relaxation behaviour towards the thermodynamically most stable state of the system. At the absolute zero temperature this state would contain only complementary LiSi, L2S2. .. L S pairs at any higher temperature this optimum complementarity state (with zero readout errors) will be scrambled into an equilibrium Boltzmann distribution, containing the corresponding readout errors (LWS , n n ), by the noise due to thermal agitation. 

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