Spawning Semiclassical Wavepackets

F. Nicacio, Alfredo Ozorio de Almeida, K. Dechoum +1 more

Paul Houle, Chris Henley

Vasile Catrinel Grădinaru, Oliver Rietmann

The semiclassical (or Hagedorn) wavepackets depending on a fixed set of parameters are an orthonormal L 2 -basis of generalized coherent states. They have been used to solve numerically the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in its semiclassical formulation, yet their localization property makes them inefficient in case of non-local phenomena such as quantum tunneling. In order to overcome this difficulty, we use simultaneously several bases with different parameters. We propose an algorithm to expand a given wavefunction in terms of multiple families of Hagedorn wavepackets; each family can then be accurately and efficiently propagated using modern semiclassical time-splittings.

Vasile Catrinel Grădinaru, George A. Hagedorn, Alain Joye

Tunneling through a one-dimensional Eckart barrier is investigated using a recently developed propagation scheme based on semiclassical wave packets. This version of the time-dependent discrete variable representation method yields linear equations for the parameters, is fully adaptive, and does not require a frozen ansatz in order to approximate the exact solution of the Schrödinger equation accurately. We rely on an analytical result to derive a new algorithm to spawn a second family of semiclassical wave packets after the tunneling has occurred. Numerical results for a benchmark problem demonstrate the accuracy of the new method.

Wolfgang P. Schleich