Short description:

This volume presents a comprehensive overview of theoretical and experimental data on Ultraviolet radiation and low energy electron induced phenomena in nucleic acid fragments. The elucidation of possible mechanisms of these events is important for all living species and hence the technical challenges involved in the exploration of these processes are discussed. This volume will be of particular interest for those involved in understanding the photophysical and photochemical properties of nucleic acid bases, base assemblies, and also model systems related to nucleic acids. The chapter contributions assembled in Radiation Induced Molecular Phenomena in Nucleic Acids are written by theoreticians and experimentalists of international distinction.

Radiation Induced Molecular Phenomena in Nucleic Acids will be a useful reference to advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academics, and researchers in computational chemistry and physics, physical chemistry, biochemistry, photochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, materials science, and those engaged in nucleic acid research.

Long description:

Comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of UV-radiation and low energy electron induced phenomena in nucleic acid bases (NABs) and base assemblies are presented in this book. NABs are highly photostable; the absorbed energy is dissipated in the form of ultrafast nonradiative decay.

This book highlights the possible mechanisms of these phenomena which is important for all living species and discusses technical challenges in exploration of these processes. This volume will be of particular interest for those involved in understanding the photophysical/photochemical properties of nucleic acids. All chapters are written by the world's leading experts, both from the experimental and computational areas.

From the reviews:

"The editors ? succeed in creating a balanced portrait of their interdependent efforts in the book?s 21 chapters. ? the book contains a number of excellent individual reviews that will benefit workers interested in excited states in small DNA model systems and in the mechanisms by which low-energy electrons induce strand breaks. There are excellent references to the recent and older literature throughout the book that will be valued by established and new workers in the field." (Bern Kohler, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131 (6), 2008)

Table of Contents:

Radiation Induced Molecular Phenomena In Nucleic Acids: A Brief Introduction.- Single-Reference Methods for Excited States in Molecules and Polymers.- An Introduction to Equation-of-Motion and Linear-Response Coupled-Cluster Methods for Electronically Excited States of Molecules.- Exploring Photobiology and Biospectroscopy with the Sac-Ci (Symmetry-Adapted Cluster-Configuration Interaction) Method.- Multiconfigurational quantum chemistry for ground and excited states.- Relativistic Multireference Perturbation Theory: Complete Active-Space Second-Order Perturbation Theory (CASPT2) With The Four-Component Dirac Hamiltonian.- Structure and Properties of Molecular Solutes in Electronic Excited States: a Polarizable Continuum Model approach based on the Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory.- Nonadiabatic Excited-State Dynamics of Aromatic Heterocycles: Toward the Time-Resolved Simulation of Nucleobases.- Excited-State Structural Dynamics of Nucleic Acids and Their Components.- Ultrafast Radiationless Decay in Nucleic Acids: Insights From Nonadiabatic Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics.- Decay Pathways of Pyrimidine Bases: From Gas Phase to Solution.- Isolated DNA Base Pairs, Interplay Between Theory and Experiment.- Isolated Guanine: Tautomerism, Spectroscopy And Excited State Dynamics.- Computational Study of UV-Induced Excitations of DNA Fragments.- Non-Adiabatic Photoprocesses of Fundamental Importance to Chemistry: From Electronic Relaxation of DNA Bases to Intramolecular Charge Transfer in Electron Donor-Acceptor Molecules.- Photostability and Photoreactivity in Biomolecules: Quantum Chemistry of Nucleic Acid Base Monomers and Dimers.- Computational Modeling of Cytosine Photophysics and Photochemistry: From the Gas Phase to DNA.- From the Primary Radiation Induced Radicals in DNA Constituents to Strand Breaks: Low Temperature EPR/ENDOR Studies.- Low Energy Electron Damage To DNA.- Radiation Effects On DNA: Theoretical Investigations Of Electron, Hole And Excitation Pathways To DNA Damage.- Stable Valence Anions of Nucleic Acid Bases and DNA Strand Breaks Induced by Low Energy Electrons.