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arXiv:1408.0388 · Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Computation of many-particle quantum trajectories with exchange interaction: application to the simulation of nanoelectronic devices

A. Alarcón, Simeón Moisés Yaro, Xavier Cartoixà, Xavier Oriols

Published Jul 12, 2013• 19 citations

Abstract

Following Oriols (2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 066803), an algorithm to deal with the exchange interaction in non-separable quantum systems is presented. The algorithm can be applied to fermions or bosons and, by construction, it exactly ensures that any observable is totally independent of the interchange of particles. It is based on the use of conditional Bohmian wave functions which are solutions of single-particle pseudo-Schrödinger equations. The exchange symmetry is directly defined by demanding symmetry properties of the quantum trajectories in the configuration space with a universal algorithm, rather than through a particular exchange-correlation functional introduced into the single-particle pseudo-Schrödinger equation. It requires the computation of N(2) conditional wave functions to deal with N identical particles. For separable Hamiltonians, the algorithm reduces to the standard Slater determinant for fermions (or permanent for bosons). A numerical test for a two-particle system, where exact solutions for non-separable Hamiltonians are computationally accessible, is presented. The numerical viability of the algorithm for quantum electron transport (in a far-from-equilibrium time-dependent open system) is demonstrated by computing the current and fluctuations in a nano-resistor, with exchange and Coulomb interactions among electrons.

DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/25/32/325601

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Following Oriols (2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 066803), an algorithm to deal with the exchange interaction in non-separable quantum systems is presented. The algorithm can be applied to fermions or bosons and, by construction, it exactly ensures that any observable is totally independent of the interchange of particles. It is based on the use of conditional Bohmian wave functions which are solutions of single-particle pseudo-Schrödinger equations. The exchange symmetry is directly defined by demanding symmetry properties of the quantum trajectories in the configuration space with a universal algorithm, rather than through a particular exchange-correlation functional introduced into the single-particle pseudo-Schrödinger equation. It requires the computation of N(2) conditional wave functions to deal with N identical particles. For separable Hamiltonians, the algorithm reduces to the standard Slater determinant for fermions (or permanent for bosons). A numerical test for a two-particle system, where exact solutions for non-separable Hamiltonians are computationally accessible, is presented. The numerical viability of the algorithm for quantum electron transport (in a far-from-equilibrium time-dependent open system) is demonstrated by computing the current and fluctuations in a nano-resistor, with exchange and Coulomb interactions among electrons.

It is proved that many-particle Bohm trajectories can be computed from single-particle time-dependent Schrödinger equations. From this result, a practical algorithm for the computation of transport properties of many-electron systems with exchange and Coulomb correlations is derived. As a test, two-particle Bohm trajectories in a tunneling scenario are compared to exact results with an excellent agreement. The algorithm opens the path for implementing a many-particle quantum transport (Monte Carlo) simulator, beyond the Fermi liquid paradigm.

A recent proposal for modeling time-dependent quantum electron transport with Coulomb and exchange correlations using quantum (Bohm) trajectories (Oriols 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 066803) is extended towards the computation of the total (particle plus displacement) current in mesoscopic devices. In particular, two different methods for the practical computation of the total current are compared. The first method computes the particle and the displacement currents from the rate of Bohm particles crossing a particular surface and the time-dependent variations of the electric field there. The second method uses the Ramo–Shockley theorem to compute the total current on that surface from the knowledge of the Bohm particle dynamics in a 3D volume and the time-dependent variations of the electric field on the boundaries of that volume. From a computational point of view, it is shown that both methods achieve local current conservation, but the second is preferred because it is free from 'spurious' peaks. A numerical example, a Bohm trajectory crossing a double-barrier tunneling structure, is presented, supporting the conclusions.

A prominent tool to study the dynamics of open quantum systems is the reduced density matrix. Yet, approaching open quantum systems by means of state vectors has well known computational advantages. In this respect, the physical meaning of the so-called conditional states in Markovian and non-Markovian scenarios has been a topic of recent debate in the construction of stochastic Schrödinger equations. We shed light on this discussion by acknowledging the Bohmian conditional wavefunction (linked to the corresponding Bohmian trajectory) as the proper mathematical object to represent, in terms of state vectors, an arbitrary subset of degrees of freedom. As an example of the practical utility of these states, we present a time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo algorithm to describe electron transport in open quantum systems under general (Markovian or non-Markovian) conditions. By making the most of trajectory-based and wavefunction methods, the resulting simulation technique extends to the quantum regime, the computational capabilities that the Monte Carlo solution of the Boltzmann transport equation offers for semi-classical electron devices.

A prominent tool to study the dynamics of open quantum systems is the reduced density matrix. Yet, approaching open quantum systems by means of state vectors has well known computational advantages. In this respect, the physical meaning of the so-called conditional states in Markovian and non-Markovian scenarios has been a topic of recent debate in the construction of stochastic Schrödinger equations. We shed light on this discussion by acknowledging the Bohmian conditional wavefunction (linked to the corresponding Bohmian trajectory) as the proper mathematical object to represent, in terms of state vectors, an arbitrary subset of degrees of freedom. As an example of the practical utility of these states, we present a time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo algorithm to describe electron transport in open quantum systems under general (Markovian or non-Markovian) conditions. By making the most of trajectory-based and wavefunction methods, the resulting simulation technique extends to the quantum regime, the computational capabilities that the Monte Carlo solution of the Boltzmann transport equation offers for semi-classical electron devices.

With the aim of manufacturing faster and smaller devices, the electronic industry is today approaching both the nano and the picosecond scales. In this particular scenario, electron dynamics becomes strongly correlated both in space and time. We have recently shown that Bohmian trajectories allow a direct treatment of the time-dependent many-particle interaction among electrons with accuracy comparable to Density Functional Theory techniques. In this work we present a general purpose time-dependent 3D quantum electron transport simulator based on Bohmian trajectories that we call BITLLES. As a numerical example of its capabilities, we compute the full electrical characteristics (DC, High frequency and fluctuations) of a Resonant Tunneling Diode.

We propose an algorithm for the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for N >> 1bosons interacting via a two-body interaction potential in the mean-field scaling regime. Unlike existing numerical algorithms for quantum dynamics, the proposed algorithm has a computational complexity that is independent of the number N of particles. It is based on an ansatz for the wave function inspired by the Bogoliubov theory, which is an asymptotic theory for large N. In a first part, we follow Bogoliubov theory in evolving the condensate function by the Hartree equation, but we use the Dirac--Frenkel time-dependent variational principle to derive nonlinear equations of motion for the excitation functions in the Bogoliubov ansatz. By carefully exploiting the bosonic symmetry, the so obtained approximate wave functions are shown to have derivatives bounded independently of N apart from a time-dependent global phase factor which rotates with a frequency proportional to N. In the second part, we numerically approximate the wave function (modulo the phase) by a composite algorithm, which employs an appropriate splitting of the equations of motion and uses a dynamical low-rank approximation of the fundamental two-particle excitation function by linear combinations of products of single-particle functions. The low-rank excitation function is evolved in time by a basis update and Galerkin (BUG) integrator that is robust to small singular values of the coefficient matrix and allows for rank adaptivity. Numerical results are provided to assess the performance of the proposed algorithm.