Centroid molecular dynamics studies of quantum many-body systems

Marc Pavese, Soonmin Jang, Gregory A. Voth

Jianshu Cao, Gregory A. Voth

Numerical algorithms are developed for the centroid molecular dynamics (centroid MD) method to calculate dynamical time correlation functions for general many-body quantum systems. Approaches based on the normal mode path integral molecular dynamics and staging path integral Monte Carlo methods are described to carry out a direct calculation of the force on the centroid variables in the centroid MD algorithm. A more efficient, but approximate, scheme to compute the centroid force is devised which is based on the locally optimized harmonic approximation for the centroid potential. The centroid MD equations in the latter method can be solved with the help of an iterative procedure or through extended Lagrangian dynamics. A third algorithm introduces an effective centroid pseudopotential to approximate the full many-body centroid mean force potential by effective pairwise centroid interactions. Numerical simulations for both prototype models and more realistic many-body systems are performed to explore the feasibility and limitations of each algorithm.

Francesco Pederiva

Kenichi Kinugawa, Hidemi Nagao, Koji Ohta

We present a formalism of the path integral centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) extended to Bose and Fermi statistics as a semiclassical approach to explore the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. The validity of the method is examined in relation to the time correlation functions. The presently proposed scheme, refined from our previous derivation [Chem. Phys. Lett. 307, 187 (1999)], is aimed at the calculations of not the exact quantum-mechanical dynamics but the semiclassical dynamics under certain approximations. The formalism is based on the projection operator with which the Bose/Fermi system is mapped onto a particular type of pseudo-Boltzmann system. In the pseudo-Boltzmann system the correlation due to the Bose/Fermi statistics is introduced via an extra pseudopotential called the permutation potential and its relevant operator. Using the present semiclassical formalism, the time correlation function of centroid position, which is evaluated from the CMD trajectories in the pseudo-Boltzmann system, is an approximation to the Kubo canonical correlation function of position operator of the exact quantum-statistical system composed of bosons or fermions. There is no such apparent relation between the momentum operator and the corresponding momentum centroid.

Shiwei Zhang

Ionuţ Georgescu, Vladimir A. Mandelshtam

A quantum dynamics approach, called Gaussian molecular dynamics, is introduced. As in the centroid molecular dynamics, the $N$-body quantum system is mapped to an $N$-body classical system with an effective Hamiltonian arising within the variational Gaussian wave-packet approximation. The approach is exact for the harmonic oscillator and for the high-temperature limit, accurate in the short-time limit and is computationally very efficient.