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AIP Advances

On the relation between nodal structures in quantum wave functions and particle correlation

Peter Schürger, Volker Engel

Published Dec 1, 2023• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the influence of nodal structures in two-dimensional quantum mechanical densities on wave packet entanglement. This is motivated by our recent study [Entropy, 25, 970 (2023)], which showed that the mutual information derived from the momentum-space probability density of a coupled two-particle system exhibits an unusual time dependence, which is not encountered if the position-space density is employed in the calculation. In studying a model density, here, we identify cases where the mutual information increases with the number of nodes in the wave function and approaches a finite value, whereas in this limit, the linear correlation vanishes. The results of the analytical model are then applied to interpret the correlation measures for coupled electron-nuclear dynamics, which are treated by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation.

DOI
10.1063/5.0180004

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We study the influence of nodal structures in two-dimensional quantum mechanical densities on wave packet entanglement. This is motivated by our recent study [Entropy, 25, 970 (2023)], which showed that the mutual information derived from the momentum-space probability density of a coupled two-particle system exhibits an unusual time dependence, which is not encountered if the position-space density is employed in the calculation. In studying a model density, here, we identify cases where the mutual information increases with the number of nodes in the wave function and approaches a finite value, whereas in this limit, the linear correlation vanishes. The results of the analytical model are then applied to interpret the correlation measures for coupled electron-nuclear dynamics, which are treated by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation.
We study the Born-Oppenheimer dynamics within a model for a coupled electron-nuclear motion. Differential Shannon entropies are calculated from the time-dependent probability densities of the combined system and, using single particle densities, entropies for the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom are derived. These functions provide information on details of the wave packet motion. From the entropies, we determine the mutual information which characterizes particle correlations. This quantity is compared to other measures of electron-nuclear entanglement. Numerical results are interpreted within an analytically solvable approach, and it is documented how these functions depend on properties of the Born-Oppenheimer wave function and, in particular, how dynamical effects like wave packet focusing and dispersion influence the correlation between the particles.
Applications of information-theoretic measures to a time-dependent coupled electron-nuclear system to analyze the dynamics and correlation between both particles are presented. For this, differential Shannon entropies that are derived from time-dependent coordinate-space and momentum-space probability densities are calculated. Two distinct scenarios are investigated: one exhibiting adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer dynamics and the other involving strong non-adiabatic transitions. The total and single-particle entropies, as well as the mutual information are analyzed and compared to semi-analytical expressions. The results reveal that in the adiabatic regime, correlations manifest differently in coordinate and momentum spaces, which is related to the formation of nodes. In the non-adiabatic case, entropies can be decomposed into state-specific contributions, revealing information about the transition between adiabatic states.
We calculate differential Shannon entropies derived from time-dependent coordinate-space and momentum-space probability densities. This is performed for a prototype system of a coupled electron-nuclear motion. Two situations are considered, where one is a Born-Oppenheimer adiabatic dynamics, and the other is a diabatic motion involving strong non-adiabatic transitions. The information about coordinate- and momentum-space dynamics derived from the total and single-particle entropies is discussed and interpreted with the help of analytical models. From the entropies, we derive mutual information, which is a measure for the electron-nuclear correlation. In the adiabatic case, it is found that such correlations are manifested differently in coordinate- and momentum space. For the diabatic dynamics, we show that it is possible to decompose the entropies into state-specific contributions.
In a recent paper [Bressanini et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 110201 (2005)] it was pointed out that ``the nodes of even simple wave functions are largely unexplored.'' Here we show that for NNN-particle wave functions nodal surfaces arise from the spin and orbital entanglement of constituent two-particle wave functions and derive, for two-electron atoms, 11 exact nodal rules applicable in LSLSLS coupling. In addition, the ``higher symmetry'' identified numerically in the above paper is shown to be an approximate dynamical symmetry described by a molecular model or a classical unstable periodic orbit. We show that the analysis is readily extended to four-particle wave functions and consider the case of the hydrogen molecule, both fixed in space and rotating.
The article intertwines the study of wave packet dynamics with information-theoretic measurements in one dimensional (D =1) system. A localized wave packet at time t=0 has been considered here and its change at later instant of time t is calculated for the position space wave function. The momentum space wave function is obtained by taking the Fourier transform of the position space wave function at time t= 0 . These wave functions are then employed to construct the wave packet's respective probability densities in position and momentum space, and later have been used to compute the corresponding position and momentum space Shannon (S) and Fisher information (I) entropies. It has been observed that although the Shannon and Fisher information entropies explicitly depend on the standard deviation, neither the Shannon entropy sum nor the product of Fisher information entropies is. Moreover, for D dimensional systems, the computed values of the Shannon and Fisher entropies are found to satisfy the lower bounds of the Bialynicki-Birula and Myceilski (BBM) inequality relation and the Stam-Cramer-Rao inequalities better known as the Fisher based uncertainty relation. Thus, our theoretical study explores the validation of information-theoretic measurements for wave packet dynamics using the basic formulations of information theory.
The quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is one of the most promising many-body electronic structure approaches. It employs stochastic techniques for solving the stationary Schr\" odinger equation and for evaluation of expectation values. The key advantage of QMC is its capability to use the explicitly correlated wave functions, which allow the study of many-body effects beyond the reach of mean-field methods. The most important limit on QMC accuracy is the fixed-node approximation, which comes from necessity to circumvent the fermion sign problem. The size of resulting fixed-node errors depends on the quality of the nodes (the subset of position space where the wave function vanishes) of a used wave function. In this dissertation, we analyze the nodal properties of the existing fermionic wave functions and offer new types of variational wave functions with improved nodal structure.