Response function classical limit

S. Mukamel The nth-order response function is given by a combination of 2" correlation functions divided by ft". In the classical limit, the combination of correlation functions (but not each one individually) behaves as ft" and ft cancels. It is then possible to expand the response function analytically in ft. As long as we expand a physical quantity (i.e., a response function) rather than a correlation function, the result will be analytic. 

Before entering the discussion of the classical limit, we will propose another formulation of the FDT as given by Eq. (37) or Eq. (38) in the time-domain. It provides the expression of the dissipative part of the linear response function in terms of the derivative of the symmetrized correlation function, an expression which becomes particularly simple in the classical limit [34]. 

For a particle evolving in a thermal bath, we focused our interest on the particle displacement, a dynamic variable which does not equilibrate with the bath, even at large times. As far as this variable is concerned, the equilibrium FDT does not hold. We showed how one can instead write a modified FDT relating the displacement response and correlation functions, provided that one introduces an effective temperature, associated with this dynamical variable. Except in the classical limit, the effective temperature is not simply proportional to the bath temperature, so that the FDT violation cannot be reduced to a simple rescaling of the latter. In the classical limit and at large times, the fluctuation-dissipation ratio T/Teff, which is equal to 1 /2 for standard Brownian motion, is a self-similar function of the ratio of the observation time to the waiting time when the diffusion is anomalous. 

The fluctuation dissipation theorem relates the dissipative part of the response function (x") to the correlation of fluctuations A, for any system in thermal equilibrium. The left-hand side describes the dissipative behaviour of a many-body system all or part of the work done by the external forces is irreversibly distributed into the infinitely many degrees of freedom of the thermal system. The correlation function on the right-hand side describes the manner in which a fluctuation arising spontaneously in a system in thermal equilibrium, even in the absence of external forces, may dissipate in time. In the classical limit, the fluctuation dissipation theorem becomes >). 

An alternative way to obtain the spectral density is by numerical simulation. It is possible, at least in principle, to include the intramolecular modes in this case, although it is rarely done [198]. A standard approach [33-36,41] utilizes molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories to compute the classical real time correlation function of the reaction coordinate from which the spectral density is calculated by the cosine transformation [classical limit of Eq. (9.3)]. The correspondence between the quantum and the classical densities of states via J(co) is a key for the evaluation of the quantum rate constant, that is, one can use the quantum expression for /Cj2 with the classically computed J(co). This is true only for a purely harmonic system [199]. Real solvent modes are anharmonic, although the response may well be linear. The spectral density of the harmonic system is temperature independent. For real nonlinear systems, J co) can strongly depend on temperature [200]. Thus, in a classical simulation one cannot assess equilibrium quantum populations correctly, which may result in serious errors in the computed high-frequency part of the spectrum. Song and Marcus [37] compared the results of several simulations for water available at that time in the literature [34,201] with experimental data [190]. The comparison was not in favor of those simulations. In particular, they failed to predict... 

In the classical limit (hcoj k T), the reaction coordinate X t) in each quantum state can be described as a Gaussian stochastic process [203]. It is Gaussian because of the assumed linear response. As follows from the discussion in Section II.A, if the collective solvent polarization follows the linear response, the ET system can be effectively represented by two sets of harmonic oscillators with the same frequencies but different equilibrium positions corresponding to the initial and final electronic states [26, 203]. The reaction coordinate, defined as the energy difference between the reactant and the product states, is a linear combination of the oscillator coordinates, that is, it is a linear combination of harmonic functions and is, therefore, Gaussian. The mean value is = — , for state 1 and = , for state 2, respectively. We can represent Xi(r) and X2 t) in terms of a single Gaussian stochastic process x(t) with zero mean as follows ... 

Let us first consider spectroscopy. Linear-response theory, in particular the fluctuation dissipation theorem - which relates the absorption of an incident monochromatic field to the correlation function of (e.g. dipole) fluctuations in equilibrium - has changed our perspective on spectroscopy of dense media. It has moved away from a static Schrodinger picture -phrased in terms of transitions between immutable (but usually incomputable) quantum levels - to a dynamic Heisenberg picture, in which the spectral line shape is related by Fourier transform to a correlation function that describes the decay of fluctuations. Of course, any property that cannot be computed in the Schrodinger picture, cannot be computed in the Heisenberg picture either however, correlation functions, unlike wave-functions, have a clear meaning in the classical limit. This makes it much easier to come up with simple (semi) classical interpretations and approximations. 

The quantum mechanical forms of the correlation function expressions for transport coefficients are well known and may be derived by invoking linear response theory [64] or the Mori-Zwanzig projection operator formalism [66,67], However, we would like to evaluate transport properties for quantum-classical systems. We thus take the quantum mechanical expression for a transport coefficient as a starting point and then consider a limit where the dynamics is approximated by quantum-classical dynamics [68-70], The advantage of this approach is that the full quantum equilibrium structure can be retained. 

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