The multi-layer multi-configurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) approach is an efficient method to study quantum dynamics in real and imaginary time. The present work explores its potential to describe quantum fluids. The multi-layer MCTDH approach in second quantization representation is used to study lattice models beyond one dimension at finite temperatures. A scheme to map the lattice sites onto the MCTDH tree representation for multi-dimensional lattice models is proposed. A statistical sampling scheme previously used in MCTDH calculations is adapted to facilitate an efficient description of the thermal ensemble. As example, a two-dimensional hard-core Bose-Hubbard model is studied considering up to 64 × 64 lattice sites. The single particle function basis set size required to obtain converged results is found to not increase with the lattice size. The numerical results properly simulate the finite temperature Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition.
The multi-layer multi-configurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) approach is an efficient method to study quantum dynamics in real and imaginary time. The present work explores its potential to describe quantum fluids. The multi-layer MCTDH approach in second quantization representation is used to study lattice models beyond one dimension at finite temperatures. A scheme to map the lattice sites onto the MCTDH tree representation for multi-dimensional lattice models is proposed. A statistical sampling scheme previously used in MCTDH calculations is adapted to facilitate an efficient description of the thermal ensemble. As example, a two-dimensional hard-core Bose-Hubbard model is studied considering up to 64 × 64 lattice sites. The single particle function basis set size required to obtain converged results is found to not increase with the lattice size. The numerical results properly simulate the finite temperature Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition.
A multi-layer multi-configurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) approach using a second quantization representation (SQR) based on optimized time-dependent orbitals is introduced. The approach combines elements of the multi-layer MCTDH-SQR approach of Wang and Thoss, which employs a preselected time-independent orbital basis, and the MCTDH for bosons and multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree-Fock approaches, which do not use multi-layering but employ time-dependent orbital bases. In contrast to existing MCTDH-type approaches, the results of the present approach for a given number of configurations are not invariant with respect to unitary transformations of the time-dependent orbital basis. Thus a natural orbital representation is chosen to achieve fast convergence with respect to the number of configurations employed. Equations of motion for the present ansatz, called (multi-layer) MCTDH in optimized second quantization representation, are derived. Furthermore, a scheme for the calculation of optimized unoccupied single-particle functions is given which can be used to avoid singularities in the equations of motion.
The multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) in optimized second quantization representation (oSQR) approach combines the tensor contraction scheme of the multilayer MCTDH approach with the use of an optimized time-dependent orbital basis. Extending the original work on the subject [U. Manthe and T. Weike, J. Chem. Phys. 146, 064117 (2017)], here MCTDH-oSQR propagation in imaginary time and properties related to particle number conservation are studied. Differences between the orbital equation of motion in real and imaginary time are highlighted and a new gauge operator, which facilitates efficient imaginary time propagation, is introduced. Studying Bose-Hubbard models, particle number conservation in MCTDH-oSQR calculations is investigated in detail. Interesting properties of the single-particle functions used in the multilayer MCTDH representation are identified. Based on these results, a tensor contraction scheme, which explicitly utilizes particle number conservation, is suggested.
Nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) solves correlated lattice models by obtaining their local correlation functions from an effective model consisting of a single impurity in a self-consistently determined bath. The recently developed mapping of this impurity problem from the Keldysh time contour onto a time-dependent single-impurity Anderson model (SIAM) [C. Gramsch et al., Phys. Rev. B 88, 235106 (2013)] allows one to use wave-function-based methods in the context of nonequilibrium DMFT. Within this mapping, long times in the DMFT simulation become accessible by an increasing number of bath orbitals, which requires efficient representations of the time-dependent SIAM wave function. These can be achieved by the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method and its multilayer extensions. We find that MCTDH outperforms exact diagonalization for large baths in which the latter approach is still within reach and allows for the calculation of SIAMs beyond the system size accessible by exact diagonalization. Moreover, we illustrate the computation of the self-consistent two-time impurity Green's function within the MCTDH second quantization representation.
We develop the multi-layer multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (ML-MCTDHB), a variational numerically exact ab initio method for studying the quantum dynamics and stationary properties of general bosonic systems. ML-MCTDHB takes advantage of the permutation symmetry of identical bosons, which allows for investigations of the quantum dynamics from few to many-body systems. Moreover, the multi-layer feature enables ML-MCTDHB to describe mixed bosonic systems consisting of arbitrary many species. Multi-dimensional as well as mixed-dimensional systems can be accurately and efficiently simulated via the multi-layer expansion scheme. We provide a detailed account of the underlying theory and the corresponding implementation. We also demonstrate the superior performance by applying the method to the tunneling dynamics of bosonic ensembles in a one-dimensional double well potential, where a single-species bosonic ensemble of various correlation strengths and a weakly interacting two-species bosonic ensemble are considered.
In multi-configurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) approaches, different multi-layered wavefunction representations can be used to represent the same physical wavefunction. Transformations between different equivalent representations of a physical wavefunction that alter the tree structure used in the multi-layer MCTDH wavefunction representation interchange the role of single-particle functions (SPFs) and single-hole functions (SHFs) in the MCTDH formalism. While the physical wavefunction is invariant under these transformations, this invariance does not hold for the standard multi-layer MCTDH equations of motion. Introducing transformed SPFs, which obey normalization conditions typically associated with SHFs, revised equations of motion are derived. These equations do not show the singularities resulting from the inverse single-particle density matrix and are invariant under tree transformations. Based on the revised equations of motion, a new integration scheme is introduced. The scheme combines the advantages of the constant mean-field approach of Beck and Meyer [Z. Phys. D 42, 113 (1997)] and the singularity-free integrator suggested by Lubich [Appl. Math. Res. Express 2015, 311]. Numerical calculations studying the spin boson model in high dimensionality confirm the favorable properties of the new integration scheme.
Simulating multidimensional quantum systems at finite temperature is inherently challenging as the system is no longer described by a single, pure-state wavefunction but by a density operator, squaring an already exponential scaling of the Hilbert space. Building upon the compact wavefunction ansatz of the multi-layer multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) method, we present a new scheme for simulating finite-temperature quantum dynamics based on purification. Here, a density operator is mapped to a single ML-MCTDH wavefunction in an enlarged Hilbert space, comprising physical and auxiliary degrees of freedom. In the key step, one obtains a pure-state representation of the canonical density operator via imaginary time-propagation of the infinite-temperature state. The most important observation is that this state can be exactly decomposed as a Hartree product of maximally entangled combined modes, each combined mode consisting of a physical degree of freedom and its auxiliary counterpart. Through dynamically pruning the node ranks of the ML-tree during the "cool down" stage yields a compact finite-temperature wavefunction, thus accelerating the real-time propagation and enabling finite-temperature simulations of multidimensional, correlated molecular systems. Our method circumvents both intensive statistical sampling and costly tensor-decomposition of the full density-operator, while being broadly applicable to model Hamiltonians and general ab initio potential energy surfaces alike. Two applications of the method are presented: benchmark results on the thermal ground-state of H2O, as well as temperature-dependent infrared absorption spectra of the more challenging, floppy H3O2- anion.