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Quantum Dynamics Simulations Using the Standard Matching Pursuit Gaussian Wavepacket Method : Practical Considerations

Erik Källman

Published Jan 1, 2014• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In any quantum dynamics method that approximates wave functions as a linearly combined basis set, non-orthogonality can be is a problem. It has been proven in previous studies that, by using the most standard form of Matching Pursuit in combination with a Gaussian wave packet ansatz, exact quantum-mechanical correspondence can be obtained for particle tunneling in one and two dimensions. This study is an attempt to prove that this approach can be generally applicable to systems of arbitrary dimension propagating with an an-harmonic potential, and that adaptive initial state sampling can be used to make the method even more computationally efficient.

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In any quantum dynamics method that approximates wave functions as a linearly combined basis set, non-orthogonality can be is a problem. It has been proven in previous studies that, by using the most standard form of Matching Pursuit in combination with a Gaussian wave packet ansatz, exact quantum-mechanical correspondence can be obtained for particle tunneling in one and two dimensions. This study is an attempt to prove that this approach can be generally applicable to systems of arbitrary dimension propagating with an an-harmonic potential, and that adaptive initial state sampling can be used to make the method even more computationally efficient.
We propose a method for dealing with the problem of linear dependence in quantum dynamics simulations employing over-complete Gaussian wavepacket (GWP) basis sets. In particular, by periodically projecting out redundant basis functions using the matching pursuit algorithm whilst simultaneously introducing GWPs which avoid linear dependence with the current basis set, we find that numerical conditioning of the equations-of-motion can be readily controlled. In applications to particle tunnelling in one- and two-dimensional potentials, this method allows us to reproduce the exact quantum-mechanical results with fewer GWP basis functions than similar calculations with non-adaptive basis sets, a result which we trace back to the improved energy conservation of our adaptive approach.
The study of quantum transport is important for understanding the propagation of electronic currents in matter on nanoscopic and mesoscopic scales. We discuss the use of a novel orthogonal wavepacket basis set for non-equilibrium many-electron transport problems. The basis is constructed from stroboscopic images of the continuous time evolution of an initial set of wavepackets. This built-in time-related feature of the basis makes it efficient for practical computational schemes and also suitable for providing physical insight into transport phenomena. We demonstrate how the wavepacket basis can be used to recover the exact non-interacting ground state density for systems with a localised potential barrier. Using a Hartree-like electron-electron interaction, we then implement the basis in two 1D transport problems: the establishment of a steady current and the abrupt switching on of a potential barrier in a system in its ground state. Finally, we discuss the effect of spurious self-interaction on the propagation of the wavepackets.
We develop methodology for performing time dependent quantum mechanical calculations by representing the wave function as a sum of Gaussian wave packets (GWP) each characterized by a set of parameters such as width, position, momentum, and phase. The problem of computing the time evolution of the wave function is thus reduced to that of finding the time evolution of the parameters in the Gaussians. This parameter motion is determined by minimizing the error made by replacing the exact wave function in the time dependent Schrödinger equation with its Gaussian representation approximant. This leads to first order differential equations for the time dependence of the parameters, and those describing the packet position and the momentum of each packet have some resemblance with the classical equations of motion. The paper studies numerically the strategy needed to achieve the best GWP representation of time dependent processes. The issues discussed are the representation of the initial wave function, the numerical stability and the solution of the differential equations giving the evolution of the parameters, and the analysis of the final wave function. Extensive comparisons are made with an approximate method which assumes that the Gaussians are independent and their width is smaller than the length scale over which the potential changes. This approximation greatly simplifies the calculations and has the advantage of a greater resemblance to classical mechanics, thus being more intuitive. We find, however, that its range of applications is limited to problems involving localized degrees of freedom that participate in the dynamic process for a very short time. Finally we give particular attention to the notion that the GWP representation of the wave function reduces the dynamics of one quantum degree of freedom to that of a set of pseudoparticles (each represented by one packet) moving according to a pseudoclassical (i.e., classical-like) mechanics whose ‘‘phase space’’ is described by a position and momentum as well as a complex phase and width.
Exact eigenfunctions for a particle in a box are obtained using Gaussian wavepacket dynamics. The eigenfunctions are obtained by propagating, without approximation, an infinite set of Gaussian wavepackets that collectively satisfy the boundary conditions of the problem, being coherent states appropriate to this problem. The method of images is applied to enforce these boundary conditions. This technique may be applied to the quantum billiard problem whenever the particle is confined to any open or closed region that tessellates space, regardless of the dimension of the region. Also, it is shown that the use of frozen Gaussians along with the De Leon-Heller spectral quantisation method gives the exact solution for the one-dimensional problem as well as for the above multi-dimensional problems, provided the components of the momentum of the wavepackets are chosen at random.
Rigorous simulations of quantum tunneling dynamics in model systems with up to 20 coupled degrees of freedom are reported. The simulations implement an extension of the recently developed matching-pursuit/split-operator Fourier-transform method to complex-valued coherent-state representations. The resulting method recursively applies the time-evolution operator, as defined by the Trotter expansion to second order accuracy, in dynamically adaptive coherent-state representations generated by an approach that combines the matching-pursuit algorithm with a gradient-based optimization method.
A previous initial value coherent state representation is applied to Gaussian wave packet propagation on one-dimensional and two-dimensional double well potentials. The method uses a basis of trajectory guided frozen Gaussian coherent states, sampled from a Monte Carlo ensemble, for numerical solutions of the quantum time dependent integro-differential Schrödinger equation. Accurate tunneling splittings are obtained. Comparisons are also made with corresponding results obtained by the Herman–Kluk semiclassical initial value representation wave packet method.