Classical Liouville dynamics

Thus, we see that in order to obtain the mean field equations of motion, the density matrix of the entire system is assumed to factor into a product of subsystem and environmental contributions with neglect of correlations. The quantum dynamics then evolves as a pure state wave function depending on the coordinates evolving in the mean field generated by the quantum density. As we have seen in the previous sections, these approximations are not valid and no simple representation of the quantum-classical dynamics is possible in terms of single effective trajectories. Consequently, in contrast to claims made in the literature [54], quantum-classical Liouville dynamics is not equivalent to mean field dynamics. 

We remark that the simulation scheme for master equation dynamics has a number of attractive features when compared to quantum-classical Liouville dynamics. The solution of the master equation consists of two numerically simple parts. The first is the computation of the memory function which involves adiabatic evolution along mean surfaces. Once the transition rates are known as a function of the subsystem coordinates, the sequential short-time propagation algorithm may be used to evolve the observable or density. Since the dynamics is restricted to single adiabatic surfaces, no phase factors... 

G. Hanna and R. Kapral. Quantum-classical Liouville dynamics of nonadiabatic proton transfer. J. Chem. Phys., 122(24) 244505, 2005. 

The chapter is organized as follows The quantum-classical Liouville dynamics scheme is first outlined and a rigorous surface hopping trajectory algorithm for its implementation is presented. The iterative linearized density matrix propagation approach is then described and an approach for its implementation is presented. In the Model Simulations section the comparable performance of the two methods is documented for the generalized spin-boson model and numerical convergence issues are mentioned. In the Conclusions we review the perspectives of this study. 

The Wigner function has the valuable property that the time evolution equation for the quantum dynamics in the Wigner representation resembles that for the classical Liouville dynamics. Specifically, the Schrodinger equation can be transformed to [70]... 

Thus far we have focused on the formal development of quantum-classical dynamics and the derivation of expressions for transport coefficients which utilize this dynamics. We now turn to a discussion of how quantum-classical Liouville dynamics can be simulated for arbitrary many-body systems. 

Quantum-Classical Liouville Dynamics of Condensed Phase Quantum Processes... 

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