The simulation of electronically nonadiabatic dynamics and spectroscopy remains as a central challenge in computational chemistry. Amongst the reduced dynamic methods, various forms of the perturbative quantum master equation (QME) including Fermi's golden rule (FGR), Redfield equation, and Marcus theory enjoy widespread use for their efficiency in the perturbative regime, and provides important physical intuition for the underlying dynamics. In the first chapter of this dissertation, the accuracy of various QMEs that treat off-diagonal electronic coupling perturbatively (OD-QME) will be examined on a spin-boson model. OD-QME works in the interaction picture, limiting its application to population dynamics. A novel way of retrieving Schrodinger picture coherences from interaction picture dynamics will be introduced, and the resulting dynamics will be compared against the numerically exact multi-configuration time dependent Hartree method. It will be shown that OD-QME can generate accurate population and coherence in appropriate parameter ranges, and that the time-nonlocal QME is more accurate than time-local QME, especially if the QME uses a population only projection. In the second chapter, the aforementioned method of calculating electronic coherence via OD-QME is applied to the simulation of absorption spectra. The result will be compared against the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion, as well as the Redfield time-local QME which is widely applied in the context of spectroscopy. It will be shown that OD-QME exhibits comparable accuracy to Redfield QME over a wide parameter range. Both QMEs fail to predict the spectra accurately in the case of a high-frequency bath at a low temperature, and this error is likely to be linked to the quantum behavior of the bath. In the third chapter, the FGR rates of electronically nonadiabatic reactions enhanced by a microcavity is calculated. It will be shown that the cavity-enhanced reaction rates can be evaluated from the cavity-free FGR correlation function with minimum additional effort, and this method will be applied to a model CT reaction. While a high-frequency cavity enhances reactions in the Marcus inverted region selectively, a low-frequency cavity enhances reactions in all regions uniformly. In the fourth chapter, the FGR charge transfer rate constants for a molecular triad system solvated in explicit solvent is calculated via linear semiclassical (LSC) approach. A Marcus-like expression can be derived after applying a hierarchy of approximations. The validity of such approximations will be confirmed for the triad model. It will also be shown that the charge transfer rate depends deeply on the conformation of the molecule, the fluctuation between which is the rate-limiting step of the charge transfer.
The simulation of electronically nonadiabatic dynamics and spectroscopy remains as a central challenge in computational chemistry. Amongst the reduced dynamic methods, various forms of the perturbative quantum master equation (QME) including Fermi's golden rule (FGR), Redfield equation, and Marcus theory enjoy widespread use for their efficiency in the perturbative regime, and provides important physical intuition for the underlying dynamics. In the first chapter of this dissertation, the accuracy of various QMEs that treat off-diagonal electronic coupling perturbatively (OD-QME) will be examined on a spin-boson model. OD-QME works in the interaction picture, limiting its application to population dynamics. A novel way of retrieving Schrodinger picture coherences from interaction picture dynamics will be introduced, and the resulting dynamics will be compared against the numerically exact multi-configuration time dependent Hartree method. It will be shown that OD-QME can generate accurate population and coherence in appropriate parameter ranges, and that the time-nonlocal QME is more accurate than time-local QME, especially if the QME uses a population only projection. In the second chapter, the aforementioned method of calculating electronic coherence via OD-QME is applied to the simulation of absorption spectra. The result will be compared against the numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion, as well as the Redfield time-local QME which is widely applied in the context of spectroscopy. It will be shown that OD-QME exhibits comparable accuracy to Redfield QME over a wide parameter range. Both QMEs fail to predict the spectra accurately in the case of a high-frequency bath at a low temperature, and this error is likely to be linked to the quantum behavior of the bath. In the third chapter, the FGR rates of electronically nonadiabatic reactions enhanced by a microcavity is calculated. It will be shown that the cavity-enhanced reaction rates can be evaluated from the cavity-free FGR correlation function with minimum additional effort, and this method will be applied to a model CT reaction. While a high-frequency cavity enhances reactions in the Marcus inverted region selectively, a low-frequency cavity enhances reactions in all regions uniformly. In the fourth chapter, the FGR charge transfer rate constants for a molecular triad system solvated in explicit solvent is calculated via linear semiclassical (LSC) approach. A Marcus-like expression can be derived after applying a hierarchy of approximations. The validity of such approximations will be confirmed for the triad model. It will also be shown that the charge transfer rate depends deeply on the conformation of the molecule, the fluctuation between which is the rate-limiting step of the charge transfer.
Modeling chemical dynamics is essential for understanding, predicting, and optimizing chemical processes. Because realistic chemical systems involve many interacting degrees of freedom, direct propagation of the many-body Schr"{o}dinger equation is intractable for all but the smallest systems. Quantum information platforms offer a fundamentally different representation: a d-dimensional state may be encoded using k=log2(d) qubits rather than storing each amplitude independently. To harness this advantage for chemistry, it is necessary to develop quantum algorithms and hardware architectures capable of simulating the open-system dynamics ubiquitous in condensed-phase and molecular environments. In the first chapter, we develop a theoretical framework for simulating a cavity-modified photoinduced charge-transfer reaction in the carotenoid–porphyrin–C60 (CPC60) molecular triad dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF). Nonequilibrium Fermi’s Golden Rule (NE-FGR) rate coefficients are obtained as a product of cavity-free and cavity-modified correlation functions. We further introduce an approximation based on Instantaneous Marcus Theory (IMT) that closely tracks the full NE-FGR result across all relevant time scales. Population transfer rates computed from the population-only off-diagonal quantum master equation (p-tcl-OD-QME) are shown to be consistent with the NE-FGR predictions. Our results demonstrate that nonequilibrium charge-transfer dynamics are significantly modified by coupling to an optical cavity. The second chapter addresses the integration of linear nonautonomous ordinary differential equations on digital quantum hardware. Rather than classically constructing a nonunitary propagator at each time step and embedding it into a larger unitary operation for execution on quantum hardware, we eliminate this classical–quantum partitioning. We derive and propagate differential equations for the singular value decomposition (SVD) factors of the propagator directly, enabling time evolution to be implemented within a quantum-compatible framework. This approach shifts the locus of time integration from the classical processor to the quantum device. In the third chapter, we investigate the feasibility of simulating chemical reaction dynamics on a parametrically driven bosonic superconducting Kerr-cat device. This analog platform enables direct control over parameters defining an effective double-well free-energy landscape, as well as over environmental factors such as temperature and system–bath coupling strength. We demonstrate that proton transfer dynamics in prototypical benchmark systems, including hydrogen-bonded dimers of malonaldehyde and DNA base pairs, can be accurately reproduced using experimentally accessible Kerr-cat architectures.
Theoretical studies of electron and energy transport in nanostructures usually involve nonequilibrium quantum impurity models, which feature a locally interacting quantum system (impurity) coupled to noninteracting bosonic and/or electronic baths each at its own equilibrium. In these models, the interplay of strong correlation, nonequilibrium effects and dissipation leads to rich and complex phenomena. As a nonequilibrium strongly correlated many-body problem, these models, except at some rare cases, have no exact analytical solution, and hence their treatment heavily relies upon numerical techniques. The goal of this thesis is to develop numerically accurate and relatively low-cost techniques for treatment of strongly correlated open nonequilibirum quantum systems. Such impurity solvers are in high demand both as standalone methods for simulation of response in nanoscale junctions and as part of divide-and-conquer schemes such as dynamical mean field theory (DMFT).For nonequilibirum open quantum systems, two characteristic energy scales governing the physics are intra-system interactions and strength of the system-baths couplings. Thus, systems strongly coupled to their baths with weak intra-system interactions or weakly coupled systems with strong local interactions can be treated within developed perturbation theory approaches. My research focuses on development of nonequilibirum dual techniques, which are capable to accurately treat situations where perturbative techniques are inapplicable due to absence of a small parameter in the system and which reduce to standard perturbative expansions in the limits of weak coupling or weak intra-system interaction. \tDual techniques rely on ability to solve exactly a simplified reference system. The latter includes exactly all intra-system interactions and accounts approximately for system-bath couplings. Dual techniques (described below) allow to account for deviation from the correct hybridization function in a organized and controlled manner of superperturbative expansion. Here, I use Markovian Lindbald quantum master equation (QME) as a solver for the reference system. In the thesis I discuss possibility of mapping between true non-Markov dynamics and simpler Markov Lindblad QME (mapping between physical and reference systems), numerical methods for the mapping and for solution of the resulting Lindblad QME, and application of the mapping in novel dual formulations: auxiliary-QME dual fermion and dual boson approaches. \tFirst I analytically prove that the continuous fermionic baths that the impurity is coupled to can be mapped onto a set of dissipative auxiliary modes under Lindblad QME. Based on this mapping, complicated non-Markovian dynamics of the open fermionic system can be treated by a much simpler Markovian Lindblad QME. However, nice mapping generally requires many auxiliary modes, and numerically only a small number of modes can be exactly diagonalized due to exponential increase of the Hilbert space. To perturbatively treat the difference between the true bath and the small-size auxiliary one, we introduce dual-fermion method. It can directly target the steady state and avoid long-time propagation. Besides current-voltage relation, it can also provide spectral functions, indicating itself as a potential impurity solver for DMFT. Furthermore, we generalize dual-fermion method to consider additionally the effects of bosonic environment; hence it is called dual-boson method. It can be used for studying electron-phonon interaction and light-matter interaction in nanojunctions. By comparing with numerically exact results we argue that both methods are very accurate and relatively cheap. \tFinally, matrix product state representation of the Lindblad QME enables us to treat a large number of auxiliary modes, which provide an exponentially improved mapping. Adding counting field to the auxiliary QME, we can compute the generating function of time-dependent full-counting statistics of electron transport, which yields not only electronic current but also higher-order cumulants (e.g., zero-frequency noise).
In this thesis, I explore dissipative quantum dynamics of several prototypical model systems via various approaches, ranging from approximate to numerically exact schemes. In particular, in the realm of the approximate I explore the accuracy of Padé–resummed master equations and the fewest switches surface hopping (FSSH) algorithm for the spin–boson model, and non-crossing approximations (NCA) for the Anderson–Holstein model. Next, I develop new and exact Monte Carlo approaches and test them on the spin–boson model. I propose well–defined criteria for assessing the accuracy of Padé-resummed quantum master equations, which correctly demarcate the regions of parameter space where the Padé approximation is reliable. I continue the investigation of spin–boson dynamics by benchmark comparisons of the semiclassical FSSH algorithm to exact dynamics over a wide range of parameters. Despite small deviations from golden-rule scaling in the Marcus regime, standard surface hopping algorithm is found to be accurate over a large portion of parameter space. The inclusion of decoherence corrections via the augmented FSSH algorithm improves the accuracy of dynamical behavior compared to exact simulations, but the effects are generally not dramatic for the cases I consider. Next, I introduce new methods for numerically exact real-time simulation based on real-time diagrammatic Quantum Monte Carlo (dQMC) and the inchworm algorithm. These methods optimally recycle Monte Carlo information from earlier times to greatly suppress the dynamical sign problem. In the context of the spin–boson model, I formulate the inchworm expansion in two distinct ways: the first with respect to an expansion in the system–bath coupling and the second as an expansion in the diabatic coupling. In addition, a cumulant version of the inchworm Monte Carlo method is motivated by the latter expansion, which allows for further suppression of the growth of the sign error. I provide a comprehensive comparison of the performance of the inchworm Monte Carlo algorithms to other exact methodologies as well as a discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally, I investigate the dynamical interplay between the electron–electron interaction and the electron–phonon coupling within the Anderson–Holstein model via two complementary NCAs: the first is constructed around the weak-coupling limit and the second around the polaron limit. The influence of phonons on spectral and transport properties is explored in equilibrium, for non-equilibrium steady state and for transient dynamics after a quench. I find the two NCAs disagree in nontrivial ways, indicating that more reliable approaches to the problem are needed. The complementary frameworks used here pave the way for numerically exact methods based on inchworm dQMC algorithms capable of treating open systems simultaneously coupled to multiple fermionic and bosonic baths.
This thesis describes the development of practical and efficient computational approaches to the quantum dynamics of complex systems. Most of the work presented here relies on the generalized quantum master equation (GQME) formalism, which provides a simple equation of motion of reduced dimensionality for a set of dynamical quantities, e.g., nonequilibrium averages and equilibrium time correlation functions. The reduced dimensionality of the GQME comes at a cost: the introduction of the memory kernel, which accounts for the influence of all ``excluded'' degrees of freedom. Focusing first on the second-order perturbative treatment of the memory kernel known as Redfield theory, I present a collaborative effort to extend its applicability into highly non-Markovian regions via a mode freezing approach. In this method, a portion of bath modes characterized by low frequencies are treated as sources of static disorder and used to calculate modified Redfield dynamics. Application of the method to the spin-boson and FMO complex models indicates that the Redfield+frozen modes scheme consistently produces dynamics that are as good or better than bare Redfield dynamics. Next, we explore GQME approach coupled to the self-consistent solution of the memory kernel, which requires the calculation of auxiliary kernels. Previous implementations of the method had shown impressive boosts in efficiency and, when approximate methods were used to calculate the auxiliary kernels, accuracy over direct calculation of nonequilibrium averages. We show that this method, when formulated from the Mori perspective, is equally applicable to nonequilibrium averages and equilibrium correlation functions. In addition, we examine the dependence of the improvements afforded by the GQME framework on the choice projection operator and kernel closure. In particular, we demonstrate that improvements in efficiency, which rely on short memory lifetimes, are sensitively dependent on the choice of projection operator, and that the choice of kernel closure directly dictates the improvements in accuracy. In addition, we present evidence that indicates that the success of the GQME formalism when the auxiliary kernels are calculated via semi- and quasi-classical methods is largely due to the exact sampling of bath operators at t=0 required by the calculation of specific kernel closures. Next, we provide analytical arguments that delineate when the GQME framework coupled to the self-consistent solution of the memory kernel is likely to provide improvements in efficiency and accuracy. Finally, we present a path integral framework that can efficiently render the partially Wigner-transformed canonical density operator for systems coupled linearly to harmonic baths. This approach permits the direct calculation of any thermodynamic quantity and can be integrated into dynamical schemes like the Ehrenfest, surface hopping, or linearized semi-classical initial value representation methods to calculate equilibrium correlation functions.
The canonically consistent quantum master equation (CCQME) method to treat system-bath dynamics is used to describe intramolecular proton transfer in the thioacetylacetone molecule (TAA, C5H8OS), modeled as an N-level quantum system coupled to a solvent. The solvent is represented as a harmonic bath (a continuum of oscillators) characterized by an Ohmic-Drude spectral density. We benchmark the secularized population dynamics and steady-state populations predicted by CCQME against numerically exact hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) theory and compare it to the corresponding secularized Redfield results. Our results reveal that Redfield dynamics deviates increasingly from the HEOM reference as the system-bath coupling strength grows. In contrast, for not-too-strong couplings, the secularized CCQME population dynamics remains consistent with HEOM over an extended system-bath coupling range, and approaches the second-order mean-force Gibbs state. A complementary non-secular calculation shows that retaining population-coherence coupling reveals limitations of the second-order treatment for coherence-sensitive observables.
The dynamics of many chemical systems can be influenced significantly by interactions with their environment (bath). An exact treatment of this is often infeasible due to the exponential scaling of Hilbert space with the number of degrees of freedom. In this thesis, dynamical methods, which overcome this difficulty, are considered for spin systems coupled to spin baths as well as systems coupled to harmonic oscillator baths. The thesis begins by considering recombination reactions of radical pairs, in which two electron spins interact with baths of nuclear spins. Motivated by inaccuracies observed in semiclassical treatments of the dynamics of a series of cryptochrome-based radical pairs, a new approach capable of treating the quantum dynamics of spin systems coupled to large baths of spins is presented. This method is validated for a series of central spin models, and is found to correctly describe the quantum dynamics of spin systems containing up to 1000 spins. Following this, the validity of the conventional treatment of radical pair recombination reactions is explored by considering the coupled electronic, nuclear and spin dynamics of a model radical ion pair. The dynamics of this model is treated using the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) formalism, and the results obtained are used to validate a recently proposed series of master equations. The HEOM formalism exactly captures the quantum dynamics of systems that are coupled to harmonic baths. However, due to the scaling of its computational cost with the strength of the coupling, it often becomes impractical. To overcome this difficulty, an efficient tree tensor network-based approach is presented and valided by treating a series of simple models. Following this, it is applied to the calculation of electron transfer rates for a series of models spanning a wide range of physical regimes in order to validate a recently proposed interpolation formula for the calculation of electron transfer rates.