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arXiv:1902.04661 · The Journal of Chemical Physics

Efficient geometric integrators for nonadiabatic quantum dynamics. I. The adiabatic representation

Seonghoon Choi, Jiří J. L. Vaníček

Published May 28, 2019• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Geometric integrators of the Schrödinger equation conserve exactly many invariants of the exact solution. Among these integrators, the split-operator algorithm is explicit and easy to implement but, unfortunately, is restricted to systems whose Hamiltonian is separable into kinetic and potential terms. Here, we describe several implicit geometric integrators applicable to both separable and nonseparable Hamiltonians and, in particular, to the nonadiabatic molecular Hamiltonian in the adiabatic representation. These integrators combine the dynamic Fourier method with the recursive symmetric composition of the trapezoidal rule or implicit midpoint method, which results in an arbitrary order of accuracy in the time step. Moreover, these integrators are exactly unitary, symplectic, symmetric, time-reversible, and stable and, in contrast to the split-operator algorithm, conserve energy exactly, regardless of the accuracy of the solution. The order of convergence and conservation of geometric properties are proven analytically and demonstrated numerically on a two-surface NaI model in the adiabatic representation. Although each step of the higher order integrators is more costly, these algorithms become the most efficient ones if higher accuracy is desired; a thousand-fold speedup compared to the second-order trapezoidal rule (the Crank-Nicolson method) was observed for a wavefunction convergence error of 10−10. In a companion paper [J. Roulet, S. Choi, and J. Vaníček, J. Chem. Phys. 150, 204113 (2019)], we discuss analogous, arbitrary-order compositions of the split-operator algorithm and apply both types of geometric integrators to a higher-dimensional system in the diabatic representation.

DOI
10.1063/1.5092611

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Geometric integrators of the Schrödinger equation conserve exactly many invariants of the exact solution. Among these integrators, the split-operator algorithm is explicit and easy to implement but, unfortunately, is restricted to systems whose Hamiltonian is separable into kinetic and potential terms. Here, we describe several implicit geometric integrators applicable to both separable and nonseparable Hamiltonians and, in particular, to the nonadiabatic molecular Hamiltonian in the adiabatic representation. These integrators combine the dynamic Fourier method with the recursive symmetric composition of the trapezoidal rule or implicit midpoint method, which results in an arbitrary order of accuracy in the time step. Moreover, these integrators are exactly unitary, symplectic, symmetric, time-reversible, and stable and, in contrast to the split-operator algorithm, conserve energy exactly, regardless of the accuracy of the solution. The order of convergence and conservation of geometric properties are proven analytically and demonstrated numerically on a two-surface NaI model in the adiabatic representation. Although each step of the higher order integrators is more costly, these algorithms become the most efficient ones if higher accuracy is desired; a thousand-fold speedup compared to the second-order trapezoidal rule (the Crank-Nicolson method) was observed for a wavefunction convergence error of 10−10. In a companion paper [J. Roulet, S. Choi, and J. Vaníček, J. Chem. Phys. 150, 204113 (2019)], we discuss analogous, arbitrary-order compositions of the split-operator algorithm and apply both types of geometric integrators to a higher-dimensional system in the diabatic representation.
The split-operator algorithm combined with the dynamic Fourier method is a popular approach for quantum dynamics in systems with separable kinetic and potential energies because it is explicit, easy to implement, and preserves many geometric invariants of the exact evolution. Although the standard version has only second-order accuracy, it can be recursively symmetrically composed to obtain geometric integrators of arbitrary even order of accuracy in the time step. We have implemented such integrators for nonadiabatic quantum dynamics in the diabatic basis using the triple-jump, Suzuki-fractal, and several non-recursive optimal compositions of the second-order split-operator algorithm. Because the automatically generated splitting coefficients are redundant, we reduce the computational cost by pruning these coefficients and lower memory requirements by identifying unique coefficients. The composed integrators are exactly unitary, symplectic, symmetric, time-reversible, and stable regardless of the accuracy of the solution. The order of convergence and preservation of geometric properties are justified analytically and confirmed numerically on a two-surface NaI model in the diabatic representation. Efficiency of higher-order algorithms is sometimes questioned because the number of splitting steps grows exponentially with the order. Yet, we show that, if higher accuracy is desired, higher-order integrators become the most efficient; a 600-fold speedup compared to the second-order split-operator method and a 17000-fold speedup compared to the trapezoidal rule (the Crank-Nicolson method) was observed for convergence error of 10−10^{-10}−10.
One of the most accurate methods for solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation uses a combination of the dynamic Fourier method with the split-operator algorithm on a tensor-product grid. To reduce the number of required grid points, we let the grid move together with the wavepacket but find that the naïve algorithm based on an alternate evolution of the wavefunction and grid destroys the time reversibility of the exact evolution. Yet, we show that the time reversibility is recovered if the wavefunction and grid are evolved simultaneously during each kinetic or potential step; this is achieved by using the Ehrenfest theorem together with the splitting method. The proposed algorithm is conditionally stable, symmetric, and time-reversible and conserves the norm of the wavefunction. The preservation of these geometric properties is shown analytically and demonstrated numerically on a three-dimensional harmonic model and collinear model of He–H2 scattering. We also show that the proposed algorithm can be symmetrically composed to obtain time-reversible integrators of an arbitrary even order. We observed 10 000-fold speedup by using the tenth-order instead of the second-order method to obtain a solution with a time discretization error below 10−9. Moreover, using the adaptive grid instead of the fixed grid resulted in a 64-fold reduction in the required number of grid points in the harmonic system and made it possible to simulate the He–H2 scattering for six times longer while maintaining reasonable accuracy. Applicability of the algorithm to high-dimensional quantum dynamics is demonstrated using the strongly anharmonic eight-dimensional Hénon–Heiles model.
This talk is about a method for solving the numerical initial value problem of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation with a Hamiltonian which may depend on time. It is only for time independent Hamiltonians that I was able to describe the accuracy and stability properties in the form of proven theorems. All practical experience shows, that the time-dependent case behaves equally well. In this method, the Hamiltonian comes in only as a hermitian linear operator and not as a mathematical expression that can be reordered or otherwise transformed in order to speed up the necessary calculations. In all cases where it is a feasible computational task to apply the Hamilton operator to a generic state vector, my suggestion is to try this method as a workhorse. It can be considered a ‘Simpson’s rule’ for quantum dynamics. There is no way for me to explain the matter from a technical point of view in 10 minutes, so I’ll try to convey the basic idea of the method. This idea is to treat quantum dynamics in closer analogy to classical dynamics as one usually does. One may argue, that there is a fundamental difference between classical and quantum dynamics since the Schrodinger equation is first order with respect to the time derivative, whereas classical mechanics is inherently second order, since forces determine accelerations and not velocities. This is not so clear a distinction as one might think, since also classical mechanics can be given the first-order form of canonical equations. I propose the opposite of such an approach, namely to give quantum dynamics a second-order form by simply differentiating the time-dependent Schrodinger equation with respect to time. To be sure, this is only a heuristic device for defining a computationally feasible approximation and not a proposal to change quantum mechanics. For the resulting equation for the second time derivative of the wave function, I then carry over and use the integration methods from the field of granular matter dynamics which I have been using in an industrial project concerning simulation of the toning process in electro-photographic copiers/printers over some years [4]. Such methods come in
ConspectusSimulating molecular dynamics (MD) within a comprehensive quantum framework has been a long-standing challenge in computational chemistry. An exponential scaling of computational cost renders solving the time dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) of a molecular Hamiltonian, including both electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom (DOFs), as well as their couplings, infeasible for more than a few DOFs. In the Born-Oppenheimer (BO), or adiabatic, picture, electronic and nuclear parts of the wave function are decoupled and treated separately. Within this framework, the nuclear wave function evolves along potential energy surfaces (PESs) computed as solutions to the electronic Schrödinger equation parametrized in the nuclear DOFs. This approximation, together with increasingly elaborate numerical approaches to solve the nuclear time dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE), enabled the treatment of up to a few dozens of degrees of freedom (DOFs). However, for particular applications, such as photochemistry, the BO approximation breaks down. In this regime of non-adiabatic dynamics, solving the full molecular problem including electron-nuclear couplings becomes essential, further increasing the complexity of the numerical solution. Although valuable methods such as multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) have been proposed for the solution of the coupled electron-nuclear dynamics, they remain hampered by an exponential scaling in the number of nuclear DOFs and by the difficulty of finding universal variational forms.In this Account, we present a perspective on novel quantum computational algorithms, aiming to alleviate the exponential scaling inherent to the simulation of many-body quantum dynamics. In particular, we focus on the derivation and application of quantum algorithms for adiabatic and non-adiabatic quantum dynamics, which include efficient approaches for the calculation of the BO potential energy surfaces (PESs). Thereafter, we study the time-evolution of a model system consisting of two coupled PESs in first and second quantization. In a first application, we discuss a recently introduced quantum algorithm for the evolution of a wavepacket in first quantization and exploit the potential quantum advantage of mapping its spatial grid representation to logarithmically many qubits. For the second demonstration, we move to the second quantization framework and review the scaling properties of two alternative time-evolution algorithms, namely, a variational quantum algorithm (VQA) (based on the McLachlan variational principle) and conventional Trotter-type evolution (based on a Lie-Trotter-Suzuki formula). Both methods clearly demonstrate the potential of quantum algorithms and their favorable scaling compared to the available classical approaches. However, a clear demonstration of quantum advantage in the context of molecular quantum dynamics may require the implementation of these algorithms in fault-tolerant quantum computers, while their application in near-term, noisy quantum devices is still unclear and deserves further investigation.
Adiabatic quantum computing is a general framework for preparing eigenstates of Hamiltonians on quantum devices. However, its digital implementation requires an efficient Hamiltonian simulation subroutine, which may introduce extra computational overhead or complicated quantum control logic. In this work, we show that the time-step sizes in time discretization can be much larger than expected, and the overall complexity is greatly reduced. Remarkably, regardless of the general convergence order of the numerical method, we can choose a uniform time-step size independent of tolerated error and evolution time for sufficiently accurate simulation. Furthermore, with the boundary cancellation condition where the continuous diabatic errors are exponentially suppressed, we provide strong evidence for a superpolynomial convergence of first-order Trotter with uniform time-step size. We apply our analysis to the example of adiabatic unstructured search and show several preferable features of the Trotterized adiabatic approach: It can match the Grover lower bound, it does not require knowledge of the number of marked states, and its performance can be asymptotically comparable with that of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm.
The year 2025 marks the 100 and 30 years anniversaries of the discovery of Bose--Einstein condensation and its successful experimental realisation. Inspired by these important research achievements, a conceptually simple approach is proposed to facilitate reliable and efficient numerical simulations. The structure of the underlying systems of coupled Gross--Pitaevskii equations suggests the use of optimised high-order operator splitting methods for dynamical evolution and ground state computation. A second-order barrier, however, prevents the applicability of standard operator splitting methods for both, time evolution as well as imaginary time propagation. An innovative alternative approach accomplishes the design of novel modified operator splitting methods that remain stable under moderate smallness assumptions on the time increments. The core idea is to incorporate commutators of the defining differential and nonlinear multiplication operators, since this permits to fulfill the basic stability requirement of positive method coefficients. Further improvements with respect to convergence at the targeted precision arise from automatic adjustments of the time stepsizes by an inexpensive local error control. The presented numerical experiments confirm the favourable performance of a specific fourth-order modified operator splitting method. Amongst others, it is demonstrated that the excellent mass and energy conservation in long-term evolutions, intrinsic attributes of geometric numerical integrators for Hamiltonian systems, is maintained for a sensible variation of the time stepsizes. Moreover, the benefits of adaptive higher-order approximations in ground state computations are illustrated.