Introduction to TMCQ2024

Recent advances in theories and computational methods have opened ways for successful description of various complex phenomena and quantum processes from mesoscopic scale down to molecular details.  Along with experimental progresses such as nonlinear spectroscopy, high resolution imaging, and nanoscale manipulation techniques, those advances now make it possible to understand complicated molecular processes at unprecedented level of accuracy and details. Many complex phenomena and quantum processes that seemed impossible to grasp are now within the realm of quantitative description and prediction. Exemplary areas include energy/charge transfer, complex fluids, and biophysical processes ranging many orders of magnitudes both in time and length scales. However, as these research fields become highly specialized, different research communities, in particular, experts in statistical mechanics and quantum dynamics, mostly remain disjoint from each other. On the other hand, new and challenging theoretical and computational issues to be addressed in complex and quantum mechanical phenomena such as polaritonics, plasmonics, quantum sensing, and energy sciences call for integration and crosscutting of different research areas more than ever. Another key factor to consider is the accelerating progress in Machine Learning approaches, which may have a potential of fundamentally transforming theoretical and computational molecular sciences. During the workshop we will discuss recent advances in theories and methodologies in these fields to assess outstanding issues to be resolved.