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The Journal of Chemical Physics

An optimized random phase approximation for the dynamics of tunneling systems in condensed phases

Elizabeth Behrman, Gary A. Jongeward, Peter Guy Wolynes

Published Jul 15, 1985• 20 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We derive an optimized random phase approximation from an expansion of the free energy in terms of the generating functional. We apply the theory to a quantum mechanical tunneling system coupled to a Gaussian bath. The theory reproduces both short-time behavior and long-time averages of (real time) correlation functions, and compares favorably with both nonoptimized RPA and the cumulant expansion.

DOI
10.1063/1.449535

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We derive an optimized random phase approximation from an expansion of the free energy in terms of the generating functional. We apply the theory to a quantum mechanical tunneling system coupled to a Gaussian bath. The theory reproduces both short-time behavior and long-time averages of (real time) correlation functions, and compares favorably with both nonoptimized RPA and the cumulant expansion.
The long-range electronic correlations in a uniform electron gas may be deduced from the random-phase approximation (RPA) of Bohm and Pines [Phys. Rev. 92, 609 (1953)]. Here we generalize the RPA to nonuniform systems and use it to derive many-electron Slater-Jastrow trial wave functions for quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The RPA theory fixes the long-range behavior of the inhomogeneous two-body terms in the Jastrow factor and provides an accurate analytic expression for the one-body terms. It also explains the success of Slater-Jastrow trial functions containing determinants of Hartree-Fock or density-functional orbitals, even though these theories do not include Jastrow factors. After adjusting the RPA Jastrow factor to incorporate the known short-range behavior, we test it using variational Monte Carlo simulations. In the small inhomogeneous electron gas system we consider, the analytic RPA-based Jastrow factor slightly outperforms the standard numerically optimized form. The inhomogeneous RPA theory therefore enables us to reduce or even avoid the costly numerical optimization process.
In this paper we investigate a new approach to reduced dimensionality descriptions of quantum mechanical systems resident in a bath. We study physical situations in which the coupling between the system and the bath is slowly varying. Our method involves an operator expansion of the Feynman propagator following the Zassenhaus theorem. From this general expansion we are able to derive an especially simple special case in which the coupling is a slowly varying function of the position operators of the system and the bath. From the approximate propagator after tracing over bath degrees, we are able to derive a short time propagator which yields both a form for efficient numerical calculation and an effective Schrödinger equation for the evolution of the system under the average influence of the bath. This theory is then applied to tunneling rearrangement in mixed crystals of benzoic acid. We find that independent of potential energy perturbations, dynamic system bath couplings increase the rate of tunneling. A central goal of this type of approach is to model the increasingly complex experimental data for large (often biological) systems.
Based on the random phase approximation (RPA), RPA renormalization [J. E. Bates and F. Furche, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 171103 (2013)] is a robust many-body perturbation theory that works for molecules and materials because it does not diverge as the Kohn-Sham gap approaches zero. Additionally, RPA renormalization enables the simultaneous calculation of RPA and beyond-RPA correlation energies since the total correlation energy is the sum of a series of independent contributions. The first-order approximation (RPAr1) yields the dominant beyond-RPA contribution to the correlation energy for a given exchange-correlation kernel, but systematically underestimates the total beyond-RPA correction. For both the homogeneous electron gas model and real systems, we demonstrate numerically that RPA renormalization beyond first order converges monotonically to the infinite-order beyond-RPA correlation energy for several model exchange-correlation kernels and that the rate of convergence is principally determined by the choice of the kernel and spin polarization of the ground state. The monotonic convergence is rationalized from an analysis of the RPA renormalized correlation energy corrections, assuming the exchange-correlation kernel and response functions satisfy some reasonable conditions. For spin-unpolarized atoms, molecules, and bulk solids, we find that RPA renormalization is typically converged to 1 meV error or less by fourth order regardless of the band gap or dimensionality. Most spin-polarized systems converge at a slightly slower rate, with errors on the order of 10 meV at fourth order and typically requiring up to sixth order to reach 1 meV error or less. Slowest to converge, however, open-shell atoms present the most challenging case and require many higher orders to converge.
Computing quantum dynamics in condensed matter systems is an open challenge due to the exponential scaling of exact algorithms with the number of degrees of freedom. Current methods try to reduce the cost of the calculation using classical dynamics as the key ingredient of approximations of the quantum time evolution. Two main approaches exist, quantum classical and semi-classical, but they suffer from various difficulties, in particular when trying to go beyond the classical approximation. It may then be useful to reconsider the problem focusing on statistical time-dependent averages rather than directly on the dynamics. In this paper, we discuss a recently developed scheme for calculating symmetrized correlation functions. In this scheme, the full (complex time) evolution is broken into segments alternating thermal and real-time propagation, and the latter is reduced to classical dynamics via a linearization approximation. Increasing the number of segments systematically improves the result with respect to full classical dynamics, but at a cost which is still prohibitive. If only one segment is considered, a cumulant expansion can be used to obtain a computationally efficient algorithm, which has proven accurate for condensed phase systems in moderately quantum regimes. This scheme is summarized in the second part of the paper. We conclude by outlining how the cumulant expansion formally provides a way to improve convergence also for more than one segment. Future work will focus on testing the numerical performance of this extension and, more importantly, on investigating the limit for the number of segments that goes to infinity of the approximate expression for the symmetrized correlation function to assess formally its convergence to the exact result.
We formulate an adiabatic connection for the exchange-correlation energy in terms of pairing matrix fluctuation. This connection opens new channels for density functional approximations based on pairing interactions. Even the simplest approximation to the pairing matrix fluctuation, the particle-particle random phase approximation (pp-RPA), has some highly desirable properties. It has no delocalization error with a nearly linear energy behavior for systems with fractional charges, describes van der Waals interactions similarly and thermodynamic properties significantly better than particle-hole RPA, and eliminates static correlation error for single-bond systems. Most significantly, the pp-RPA is the first known functional that has an explicit and closed-form dependence on the occupied and unoccupied orbitals and captures the energy derivative discontinuity in strongly correlated systems. These findings illustrate the potential of including pairing interactions within a density functional framework.
Abstract Random phase approximation (RPA) electron correlation methods have gained in popularity in the recent years. A number of RPA correlation energy variants emerged in the Kohn–Sham DFT framework and in the theory of strongly orthogonal geminals. Foundations of most RPA approaches trace back to an exact expression for two‐electron reduced density matrix written in terms of one‐electron density matrix and dynamic one‐electron response functions, originally presented in the seminal paper of McLachlan and Ball (Rev. Mod. Phys. 1964, 36, 844). The aim of this article is to give a pedagogical introduction to possible approaches for describing electron correlation energy based on the McLachlan and Ball formula. The focus of the presentation is to formulate electron‐interaction energy expressions as functions of reduced density matrices. On one hand, it provides a common umbrella for RPA approximations proposed for uncorrelated (Hartree–Fock or Kohn–Sham) as well as partially correlated (strongly orthogonal geminals) references. On the other hand, such presentation may stimulate new developments in density matrix functional theory.