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.
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.
Here we study the dynamics of many-body quantum systems using the time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo method where the evolution is described by ensembles of particles and guide waves. The exponential time scaling inherent to the quantum many-body problem is reduced to polynomial-time computation by solving concurrently a set of coupled Schrodinger equations for the guide waves in physical space and a set of first-order equations for the Monte Carlo walkers. We use effective potentials to account for the local and nonlocal quantum correlations in time-varying fields, where for fermionic states an exchange "hole" is introduced explicitly through screened Coulomb potentials. The walker distributions for the ground states of para- and ortho-helium reproduce well the statistical properties, such as the electron-pair density function, of the real atoms. Our predictions for the dipole response and the ionization of an atom exposed to strong ultrashort optical pulse are in good agreement with the exact results.
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.
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.
The quantum nature of nuclei often affects molecular structure and properties, which are associated with the motion of protons and other light nuclei at low temperature. However, incorporation of the nuclear quantum effects into theoretical studies of large molecular systems is an outstanding challenge in theoretical chemistry. In this paper, the de Broglie-Bohm formulation of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is used as a framework for the development of approximate quantum corrections to the dynamics of a trajectory ensemble, representing a time-dependent wave function. Specifically, the trajectory-centered local Least Square Fit (L-LSF) to the trajectory attributes is introduced, formally analyzed and illustrated on model potentials, typically used to benchmark approximate and semiclassical dynamics methods. The L-LSF method improves the dynamics accuracy, compared to the globally defined approximations, developed previously, and is shown to converge to the exact (generally impractical for large systems) limit of quantum dynamics.
A method of molecular dynamics with quantum corrections, practical for studies of large molecular systems, is reviewed. The approach is based on the Bohmian formulation of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in which a wavefunction is represented by an ensemble of interdependent trajectories. The quantum effects come from the quantum potential acting on trajectories on par with the usual classical potential. The quantum potential is determined from the evolving nuclear wavefunction, i.e. from the quantum trajectory (QT) ensemble itself. For practical and conceptual reasons the quantum potential and corresponding quantum nuclear effect are computed only for the selected light nuclei. For studies of reactive chemical processes, the classical potential is computed on-the-fly using the density functional tight binding method of electronic structure. A massively parallel implementation, based on the message passing interface allows for efficient simulations of ensembles of thousands of trajectories describing systems of up to 200 atoms. As a biochemical application, the approximate QT approach is used to model the tunnelling-dominated proton transfer in soybean-lipoxygenase-1. A materials science application is represented by a study of the nuclear quantum effect on adsorption of hydrogen and deuterium on a C37H15 molecule, which is a model ‘flake’ of graphene.
Quantum trajectory calculations for electrons are a useful tool in the field of molecular dynamics, e.g. to understand processes in ultrafast spectroscopy. They have, however, two limitation: On the one hand, such calculations are typically based on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA) and the electron dynamics for stationary nuclei is considered, thus neglecting quantum effects of the nuclei. On the other hand, even if the quantum nuclear motion would be taken into account, a BOA dynamics on a single potential energy surface would not provide any electron trajectories because the electronic part is treated as a stationary problem. By using the exact factorization method, we overcome these limitations and generalize the theory of electronic quantum trajectories to a fully quantum-mechanical treatment of the nuclei. After reviewing the time-dependent theory of quantum hydrodynamics and quantum trajectories, we show that the nuclei can be viewed as a quantum clock for the electronic motion and we develop a fully quantum-mechanical clock-dependent version of quantum hydrodynamics. This theory is used to obtain electronic trajectories for quantum nuclei, as is exemplified for a model system of a proton-coupled electron transfer dynamics. Our work generalizes the concept of quantum trajectories and lays the foundations for the development of trajectory-based simulation methods of electron dynamics beyond the BOA.