Model systems molecular response functions

When the external electric field is time-dependent, there is no well-defined energy of the molecular system in accordance with Eq. (100), and the wave function response can thus not be retrieved from a variational condition on the energy as in the analytic derivative approach described above. Instead the response parameters have to be determined from the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, a procedure which was illustrated in Section 3 for the exact state case. In approximate state theories, however, our wave function space only partially spans the 7V-electron Hilbert space, and the response functions that correspond to an approximate state wave function will clearly be separate from those of the exact state wave function. This fact is disregarded in the sum-over-states approach, and, apart from the computational aspect of slowly converging SOS expressions, it is of little concern when highly accurate wave function models are used. But for less flexible wave function models, the correct response functions should be used in the calculation of nonlinear optical properties. 

The aim of this book is to present the basic aspects of the molecular response function theory for molecular systems in solution described with the Polarizable Continuum Model, giving special emphasis both to the physical basis of the theory and to its quantum chemical formalism. The QM formalism will be presented in the form of the coupled-cluster theory, as it is the most recent and less known formulation for the QM calculation of molecular properties within the PCM... 

How can we apply molecular dynamics simulations practically. This section gives a brief outline of a typical MD scenario. Imagine that you are interested in the response of a protein to changes in the amino add sequence, i.e., to point mutations. In this case, it is appropriate to divide the analysis into a static and a dynamic part. What we need first is a reference system, because it is advisable to base the interpretation of the calculated data on changes compared with other simulations. By taking this relative point of view, one hopes that possible errors introduced due to the assumptions and simplifications within the potential energy function may cancel out. All kinds of simulations, analyses, etc., should always be carried out for the reference and the model systems, applying the same simulation protocols. 

The model of a reacting molecular crystal proposed by Luty and Eckhardt [315] is centered on the description of the collective response of the crystal to a local strain expressed by means of an elastic stress tensor. The local strain of mechanical origin is, for our purposes, produced by the pressure or by the chemical transformation of a molecule at site n. The mechanical perturbation field couples to the internal and external (translational and rotational) coordinates Q n) generating a non local response. The dynamical variable Q can include any set of coordinates of interest for the process under consideration. In the model the system Hamiltonian includes a single molecule term, the coupling between the molecular variables at different sites through a force constants matrix W, and a third term that takes into account the coupling to the dynamical variables of the operator of the local stress. In the linear approximation, the response of the system is expressed by a response function X to a local field that can be approximated by a mean field V ... 

The dynamic response functions of finite interacting systems have most commonly been obtained from an explicit computation of the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and the matrix elements of the appropriate operators in the basis of these eigenstates [115]. This has been a widely used method particularly in the computation of the dynamic NLO coefficients of molecular systems and is known as the sum-over-states (SOS) method. In the case of model Hamiltonians, the technique that has been widely exploited to study dynamics is the Lanczos method [116]. The spectral intensity corresponding to an operator O is given by ... 

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