High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide A new concept of the molecular structure optimization method based on quantum dynamics computations is presented. Nuclei are treated as quantum mechanical particles, as are electrons, and the many-body wave function of the system is optimized by the imaginary time evolution method. The numerical demonstrations with a two-dimensional H 2 + system and a H–C–N system exemplify two possible advantages of our proposed method: (1) the optimized nuclear positions can be specified with a small number of observations (quantum measurements) and (2) the global minimum structure of nuclei can be obtained without starting from any sophisticated initial structure and getting stuck in the local minima. This method is considered to be suitable for quantum computers, the development of which will realize its application as a powerful method.
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide A new concept of the molecular structure optimization method based on quantum dynamics computations is presented. Nuclei are treated as quantum mechanical particles, as are electrons, and the many-body wave function of the system is optimized by the imaginary time evolution method. The numerical demonstrations with a two-dimensional H 2 + system and a H–C–N system exemplify two possible advantages of our proposed method: (1) the optimized nuclear positions can be specified with a small number of observations (quantum measurements) and (2) the global minimum structure of nuclei can be obtained without starting from any sophisticated initial structure and getting stuck in the local minima. This method is considered to be suitable for quantum computers, the development of which will realize its application as a powerful method.
Quantum computing has shown promise in chemical simulation and other fields where computationally hard problems must be tackled. This research focuses on optimizing molecule structures, which is an important step in understanding the properties and activities of chemical substances. It also studies the possibility of quantum computing in this domain. The system's many-body wave function is optimized using the imaginary time evolution approach, with nuclei and electrons both being considered quantum mechanical particles. Based on numerical experiments in two-dimensional H2+ and H-C-N systems, the authors find that their suggested method may have two benefits—it can find the best nuclear positions with few observations (quantum measurements), and it can find the global minimum structure of nuclei without starting from a complex initial structure and getting stuck in local minima. It is anticipated that this approach would function admirably with quantum computers, and its advancement will pave the road for its potential application as a potent tool.
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.
We consider computational methods for simulating the dynamics of molecular systems governed by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Solving the Schrödinger equation numerically poses a challenge due to its often highly oscillatory solutions, and to the exponential growth of work and memory with the number of particles in the system. Two different classes of problems are studied: the dynamics of the nuclei in a molecule and the dynamics of an electron in orbit around a nucleus. For the first class of problems we present new computational methods which exploit the relation between quantum and classical dynamics in order to make the computations more efficient. For the second class of problems, the lack of regularity in the solution poses a computational challenge. Using knowledge of the non-smooth features of the solution we construct a new method with two orders higher accuracy than what is achieved by direct application of a difference stencil.
In this paper we propose an ab initio method to solve quantum many-body problems of molecular dynamics where both electronic and nuclear degrees are represented by ensembles of trajectories and guiding waves in physical space. Both electrons and nuclei can be treated quantum mechanically where the guiding waves obey a set of coupled Schrodinger equations (quantum-quantum description) or, alternatively, coupled Schrodinger-Newtonian equations are solved for the quantum-classical approximation. The method takes into account local and nonlocal quantum correlation effects in a self-consistent manner. The general formalism is applied to one- and two-dimensional hydrogen molecules subjected to a strong ultrashort optical pulse. Comparison is made with the results from the "exact" Ehrenfest molecular dynamics for the molecular ionization and for the evolution of the internuclear distance as the molecule dissociates.
Coupled quantum electron-nuclear dynamics is often associated with the Born-Huang expansion of the molecular wave function and the appearance of nonadiabatic effects as a perturbation. On the other hand, native multicomponent representations of electrons and nuclei also exist, which do not rely on any a priori approximation. However, their implementation is hampered by prohibitive scaling. Consequently, quantum computers offer a unique opportunity for extending their use to larger systems. Here, we propose a quantum algorithm for simulating the time-evolution of molecular systems and apply it to proton transfer dynamics in malonaldehyde, described as a rigid scaffold. The proposed quantum algorithm can be easily generalized to include the explicit dynamics of the classically described molecular scaffold. We show how entanglement between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom can persist over long times if electrons do not follow the nuclear displacement adiabatically. The proposed quantum algorithm may become a valid candidate for the study of such phenomena when sufficiently powerful quantum computers become available.
Chemical dynamics, in principle, should be understood by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a molecular system, describing motion of the nuclei and electrons. However, the computational efforts to solve this partial second-order differential equation scales exponentially with the system size, which prevents us from getting exact numerical solutions for systems larger than 4-5 atoms. Thus, approximations simplifying the picture are necessary. The so-called Born-Oppenheimer approximation, separating motion of the electrons and nuclei is the central one: solution to the electronic Schrödinger equation defines the potential energy surface on which the nuclear motion unfolds, and there are standard quantum chemistry software packages for solving the electronic Schrödinger equation. For the nuclear Schrödinger equation, however, there are no widely applicable quantum-mechanical approaches, and most simulations are performed using classical Newtonian mechanics which is often adequate due to large nuclear masses. However, the nuclear quantum effects are significant for chemical processes involving light nuclei at low energies, and including these effects into simulation, even approximately, is highly desirable. In this dissertation, an approximate methodology of including quantum-mechanical effects within the quantum trajectory or the de Broglie-Bohm formulation of the Schrödinger equations is developed. Use of the trajectory framework makes the approach scalable to hundreds of degrees of freedom. The methodology is applied to study high-dimensional systems (solid He4 and others) relevant to chemistry.