Time-dependent electronic Hamiltonian

The starting point of the present theory is an expansion of the time-dependent electronic wave function in terms of single-center eigenfunctions (pi of the target Hamiltonian jTte... 

We assume a simple nondegenerate two level SM in an external classical laser field. The electronic excited state e> is located at energy cOq above the ground state g ). We consider the time-dependent SM Hamiltonian... 

When a molecule is isolated from external fields, the Hamiltonian contains only kinetic energy operators for all of the electrons and nuclei as well as temis that account for repulsion and attraction between all distinct pairs of like and unlike charges, respectively. In such a case, the Hamiltonian is constant in time. Wlien this condition is satisfied, the representation of the time-dependent wavefiinction as a superposition of Hamiltonian eigenfiinctions can be used to detemiine the time dependence of the expansion coefficients. If equation (Al.1.39) is substituted into the tune-dependent Sclirodinger equation... 

Interaction with light changes the quantum state a molecule is in, and in photochemistry this is an electronic excitation. As a result, the system will no longer be in an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian and this nonstationaiy state evolves, governed by the time-dependent Schrddinger equation... 

An expansion in powers of 1 /c is a standard approach for deriving relativistic correction terms. Taking into account electron (s) and nuclear spins (1), and indicating explicitly an external electric potential by means of the field (F = —V0, or —— dAjdt if time dependent), an expansion up to order 1/c of the Dirac Hamiltonian including the... 

In the DC-biased structures considered here, the dynamics are dominated by electronic states in the conduction band [1]. A simplified version of the theory assumes that the excitation occurs only at zone center. This reduces the problem to an n-level system (where n is approximately equal to the number of wells in the structure), which can be solved using conventional first-order perturbation theory and wave-packet methods. A more advanced version of the theory includes all of the hole states and electron states subsumed by the bandwidth of the excitation laser, as well as the perpendicular k states. In this case, a density-matrix picture must be used, which requires a solution of the time-dependent Liouville equation. Substituting the Hamiltonian into the Liouville equation leads to a modified version of the optical Bloch equations [13,15]. These equations can be solved readily, if the k states are not coupled (i.e., in the absence of Coulomb interactions). 

The actual form of the Hamiltonian operator hp does not have to be defined at this moment. As in standard perturbation theory, it is assumed that the solution of the electronic structure problem of the combined Hamiltonian HKS +HP can be described as the solution y/(0) of HKS, corrected by a small additional linear-response wavefunction /b//(,). Only these response orbitals will explicitly depend on time - they will follow the oscillations of the external perturbation and adopt its time dependency. Thus, the following Ansatz is made for the solution of the perturbed Hamiltonian HKS +HP ... 

The solute-solvent system, from the physical point of view, is nothing but a system that can be decomposed in a determined collection of electrons and nuclei. In the many-body representation, in principle, solving the global time-dependent Schrodinger equation with appropriate boundary conditions would yield a complete description for all measurable properties [47], This equation requires a definition of the total Hamiltonian in coordinate representation H(r,X), where r is the position vector operator for all electrons in the sample, and X is the position vector operator of the nuclei. In molecular quantum mechanics, as it is used in this section, H(r,X) is the Coulomb Hamiltonian[46]. The global wave function A(r,X,t) is obtained as a solution of the equation ... 

The difficulty of evaluating the quantity in Eq. (17) is that it requires the time-dependent solution of the Schrodinger equation in which the Hamiltonian is a function of all the solvent, ion, and metal nuclei, as well as of the metal electrons. In the two-state approximation, the Hamiltonian can be written as... 

Tully has discussed how the classical-path method, used originally for gas-phase collisions, can be applied to the study of atom-surface collisions. It is assumed that the motion of the atomic nucleus is associated with an effective potential energy surface and can be treated classically, thus leading to a classical trajectory R(t). The total Hamiltonian for the system can then be reduced to one for electronic motion only, associated with an electronic Hamiltonian Jf(R) = Jf t) which, as indicated, depends parametrically on the nuclear position and through that on time. Therefore, the problem becomes one of solving a time-dependent Schrodinger equation ... 

The scheme we employ uses a Cartesian laboratory system of coordinates which avoids the spurious small kinetic and Coriolis energy terms that arise when center of mass coordinates are used. However, the overall translational and rotational degrees of freedom are still present. The unconstrained coupled dynamics of all participating electrons and atomic nuclei is considered explicitly. The particles move under the influence of the instantaneous forces derived from the Coulombic potentials of the system Hamiltonian and the time-dependent system wave function. The time-dependent variational principle is used to derive the dynamical equations for a given form of time-dependent system wave function. The choice of wave function ansatz and of sets of atomic basis functions are the limiting approximations of the method. Wave function parameters, such as molecular orbital coefficients, z,(f), average nuclear positions and momenta, and Pfe(0, etc., carry the time dependence and serve as the dynamical variables of the method. Therefore, the parameterization of the system wave function is important, and we have found that wave functions expressed as generalized coherent states are particularly useful. A minimal implementation of the method [16,17] employs a wave function of the form ... 

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