Condensed-phase system quantum bath model

The standard language used to describe rate phenomena in condensed phases has evolved from Kramers one dimensional model of a particle moving on a one dimensional potential, feeling a random and a related friction force. In Section II, we will review the classical Generalized Langevin Equation (GEE) underlying Kramers model and its application to condensed phase systems. The GLE has an equivalent Hamiltonian representation in terms of a particle which is bilinearly coupled to a harmonic bath. The Hamiltonian representation, also reviewed in Section II is the basis for a quantum representation of rate processes in condensed phases. Eas also been very useful in obtaining solutions to the classical GLE. Variational estimates for the classical reaction rate are described in Section III. 

As an application of this formalism, we consider a two-level quantum system coupled to a classical bath as a simple model for a transfer reaction in a condensed phase environment. The Hamiltonian operator of this system, expressed in the diabatic basis L), P), has the matrix form [43]... 

To this date, no stable simulation methods are known which are successful at obtaining quantum dynamical properties of arbitrary many-particle systems over long times. However, significant progress has been made recently in the special case where a low-dimensional nonlinear system is coupled to a dissipative bath of harmonic oscillators. The system-bath model can often provide a realistic description of the effects of common condensed phase environments on the observable dynamics of the microscopic system of interest. A typical example is that of an impurity in a crystalline solid, where the harmonic bath arises naturally from the small-amplitude lattice vibrations. The harmonic picture is often relevant even in situations where the motion of individual solvent atoms is very anhaimonic in such cases validity of the linear response approximation can lead to Gaussian behavior of appropriate effective modes by virtue of the central limit theorem. ... 

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