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arXiv:0911.0945 · Physical Review A

Adiabatic approximation in time-dependent reduced-density-matrix functional theory

Ryan Requist, Oleg Pankratov

Published Apr 26, 2010• 46 citations
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Abstract

With the aim of describing real-time electron dynamics, we introduce an adiabatic approximation for the equation of motion of the one-body reduced density matrix (one-matrix). The eigenvalues of the one-matrix, which represent the occupation numbers of single-particle orbitals, are obtained from the constrained minimization of the instantaneous ground-state energy functional rather than from their dynamical equations. The performance of the approximation vis-\`a-vis nonadiabatic effects is assessed in real-time simulations of a two-site Hubbard model. Due to Landau-Zener-type transitions, the system evolves into a nonstationary state with persistent oscillations in the observables. The amplitude of the oscillations displays a strongly nonmonotonic dependence on the strength of the electron-electron interaction and the rate of variation of the external potential. We interpret an associated resonance behavior in the phase of the oscillations in terms of ``scattering'' with spectator energy levels. To clarify the motivation for the minimization condition, we derive a sequence of energy functionals ${E}_{v}^{(n)}$, for which the corresponding sequence of minimizing one-matrices is asymptotic to the exact one-matrix in the adiabatic limit.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.042519

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With the aim of describing real-time electron dynamics, we introduce an adiabatic approximation for the equation of motion of the one-body reduced density matrix (one-matrix). The eigenvalues of the one-matrix, which represent the occupation numbers of single-particle orbitals, are obtained from the constrained minimization of the instantaneous ground-state energy functional rather than from their dynamical equations. The performance of the approximation vis-`a-vis nonadiabatic effects is assessed in real-time simulations of a two-site Hubbard model. Due to Landau-Zener-type transitions, the system evolves into a nonstationary state with persistent oscillations in the observables. The amplitude of the oscillations displays a strongly nonmonotonic dependence on the strength of the electron-electron interaction and the rate of variation of the external potential. We interpret an associated resonance behavior in the phase of the oscillations in terms of ``scattering'' with spectator energy levels. To clarify the motivation for the minimization condition, we derive a sequence of energy functionals Ev(n){E}_{v}^{(n)}Ev(n)​, for which the corresponding sequence of minimizing one-matrices is asymptotic to the exact one-matrix in the adiabatic limit.
We prove that if the two-body terms in the equation of motion for the one-body reduced density matrix are approximated by ground-state functionals, the eigenvalues of the one-body reduced density matrix (occupation numbers) remain constant in time. This deficiency is related to the inability of such an approximation to account for relative phases in the two-body reduced density matrix. We derive an exact differential equation giving the functional dependence of these phases in an interacting Landau-Zener model and study their behavior in short- and long-time regimes. The phases undergo resonances whenever the occupation numbers approach the boundaries of the interval [0,1][0,1][0,1]. In the long-time regime, the occupation numbers display correlation-induced oscillations and the memory dependence of the functionals assumes a simple form.
The adiabatic approximation is problematic in time-dependent density matrix functional theory. With pure density matrix functionals (invariant under phase change of the natural orbitals) it leads to lack of response in the occupation numbers, hence wrong frequency dependent responses, in particular α(ω→0)≠α(0) (the static polarizability). We propose to relinquish the requirement that the functional must be a pure one-body reduced density matrix (1RDM) functional, and to introduce additional variables which can be interpreted as phases of the one-particle states of the independent particle reference system formed with the natural orbitals, thus obtaining so-called phase-including natural orbital (PINO) functionals. We also stress the importance of the correct choice of the complex conjugation in the two-electron integrals in the commonly used functionals (they should not be of exchange type). We demonstrate with the Löwdin-Shull energy expression for two-electron systems, which is an example of a PINO functional, that for two-electron systems exact responses (polarizabilities, excitation energies) are obtained, while writing this energy expression in the usual way as a 1RDM functional yields erroneous responses.
The one-body density matrix has recently attracted considerable attention as a promising key quantity for the description of systems out of equilibrium. Its time evolution is given in terms of the two-body density matrix, and thus the central challenge is to find approximations to the latter. An extra layer of difficulty is added when dealing with strong electron correlations. In this work, we explore precisely this regime by looking at the two-site Anderson impurity model as a case study. To address the system's dynamics, we use an adiabatic approximation based on the exact ground-state two-body density matrix. We find that this adiabatic extension does not reproduce the exact results even for a slow switch-on of the external perturbation, and we trace back this behavior to the lack of an accurate imaginary part of the adiabatic approximation to the two-body density matrix. The attempt to restore an approximate imaginary part through a Hilbert transform of the real part works well only for very short times, but quickly deteriorates for longer times, with the one-body density matrix being pushed out of its N-representability domain. Our results thus pose an important constraint on practical prescriptions to perform the time evolution of the one-body density matrix.
Recently, we have demonstrated that the problems finding a suitable adiabatic approximation in time-dependent one-body reduced density matrix functional theory can be remedied by introducing an additional degree of freedom to describe the system: the phase of the natural orbitals [K. J. H. Giesbertz, O. V. Gritsenko, and E. J. Baerends, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 013002 (2010); K. J. H. Giesbertz, O. V. Gritsenko, and E. J. Baerends, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 174119 (2010)]. In this article we will show in detail how the frequency-dependent response equations give the proper static limit (ω → 0), including the perturbation in the chemical potential, which is required in static response theory to ensure the correct number of particles. Additionally we show results for the polarizability for H2 and compare the performance of two different two-electron functionals: the phase-including Löwdin-Shull functional and the density matrix form of the Löwdin-Shull functional.
Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) provides a successful approach to calculate excitation energies of atomic and molecular systems. In part I of this work we present a double-pole approximation (DPA) to the response equations of TDDFT. The double-pole approximation provides an exact description of systems with two strongly coupled excitations which are isolated from the rest of the spectrum. In contrast to the traditional single- pole approximation of TDDFT the DPA also yields corrections to the Kohn-Sham oscillator strengths. Several critical pole separations can be identified, e.g. we find that the pole coupling can cause transitions to vanish entirely from the optical spectrum. We also demonstrate how to invert the double-pole solution which allows us to predict matrix elements of the exchange- correlation kernel fxc from experimental input. This can serve as benchmark for the construction of future approximations for the kernel fxc. Reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) has emerged recently as promising candidate to treat strongly correlated electronic many-body systems beyond traditional density functional theory (DFT). The research within RDMFT was so far focussed on the static theory. In this work we attempt some first steps towards a time-dependent generalization of RDMFT. In part II we derive equations of motion for natural orbitals and occupation numbers. Using the equation of motion for the occupation numbers we show that an adiabatic extension of presently known ground-state functionals of static RDMFT always leads to occupation numbers which are constant in time. From the stationary conditions of the equations of motion for the N-body correlations (correlated parts of the N-body matrices) we derive a new class of ground-state functionals which can be used in static RDMFT. Applications are presented for a one-dimensional model system where the time-dependent many-body Schrödinger equation can be propagated numerically. We use optimal control theory to find optimized laser pulses for transitions in a model for atomic Helium. From the numerically exact correlated wavefunction we extract the exact time evolution of natural orbitals and occupation numbers for (i) laser-driven Helium and (ii) electron-ion scattering. Part III of this work considers time-dependent quantum transport within TDDFT. We present an algorithm for the calculation of extended eigenstates of single- particle Hamiltonians which is especially tailored to a finite-difference discretization of the Schrödinger equation. We consider the propagation of finite mesoscopic systems and demonstrate the limitations of such an approach. To overcome the shortcomings of a description of quantum transport in terms of finite systems we develop a time-propagation scheme for extended states which utilizes a mixed basis representation. Our discretization scheme allows to treat central device and lead regions on the same footing thus preventing artificial reflections at grid boundaries.
Most applications of time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) use the adiabatic local-density approximation (ALDA) for the dynamical exchange-correlation potential V(xc)(r,t). An exact (i.e., nonadiabatic) extension of the ground-state LDA into the dynamical regime leads to a V(xc)(r,t) with a memory, which causes the electron dynamics to become dissipative. To illustrate and explain this nonadiabatic behavior, this paper studies the dynamics of two interacting electrons on a two-dimensional quantum strip of finite size, comparing TDDFT within and beyond the ALDA with numerical solutions of the two-electron time-dependent Schrodinger equation. It is shown explicitly how dissipation arises through multiple particle-hole excitations, and how the nonadiabatic extension of the ALDA fails for finite systems but becomes correct in the thermodynamic limit.