Wave function propagation

Herman M F, Kluk E and Davis H L 1986 Comparison of the propagation of semiclassical frozen Gaussian wave functions with quantum propagation for a highly excited enharmonic oscillator J. Chem. Phys. 84 326... 

The END equations are integrated to yield the time evolution of the wave function parameters for reactive processes from an initial state of the system. The solution is propagated until such a time that the system has clearly reached the final products. Then, the evolved state vector may be projected against a number of different possible final product states to yield coiresponding transition probability amplitudes. Details of the END dynamics can be depicted and cross-section cross-sections and rate coefficients calculated. 

Direct dynamics attempts to break this bottleneck in the study of MD, retaining the accuracy of the full electronic PES without the need for an analytic fit of data. The first studies in this field used semiclassical methods with semiempirical [66,67] or simple Hartree-Fock [68] wave functions to heat the electrons. These first studies used what is called BO dynamics, evaluating the PES at each step from the elech onic wave function obtained by solution of the electronic structure problem. An alternative, the Ehrenfest dynamics method, is to propagate the electronic wave function at the same time as the nuclei. Although early direct dynamics studies using this method [69-71] restricted themselves to adiabatic problems, the method can incorporate non-adiabatic effects directly in the electionic wave function. 

Singly, these functions provide a worse description of the wave function than the thawed ones described above. Not requiring the propagation of the width matrix is, however, a significant simplification, and it was hoped that collectively the frozen Gaussian functions provide a good description of the changing shape of the wave function by their relative motions. 

Both the BO dynamics and Gaussian wavepacket methods described above in Section n separate the nuclear and electronic motion at the outset, and use the concept of potential energy surfaces. In what is generally known as the Ehrenfest dynamics method, the picture is still of semiclassical nuclei and quantum mechanical electrons, but in a fundamentally different approach the electronic wave function is propagated at the same time as the pseudoparticles. These are driven by standard classical equations of motion, with the force provided by an instantaneous potential energy function... 

Static defects scatter elastically the charge carriers. Electrons do not loose memory of the phase contained in their wave function and thus propagate through the sample in a coherent way. By contrast, electron-phonon or electron-electron collisions are inelastic and generally destroy the phase coherence. The resulting inelastic mean free path, Li , which is the distance that an electron travels between two inelastic collisions, is generally equal to the phase coherence length, the distance that an electron travels before its initial phase is destroyed ... 

The use of Cl methods has been declining in recent years, to the profit of MP and especially CC methods. It is now recognized that size extensivity is important for obtaining accurate results. Excited states, however, are somewhat difficult to treat by perturbation or coupled cluster methods, and Cl or MCSCF based methods have been the prefen ed methods here. More recently propagator or equation of motion (Section 10.9) methods have been developed for coupled cluster wave functions, which allows calculation of exited state properties. 

The propagator may thus be written as an infinite series of expectation values of increasingly complex operators over the reference wave function. 

So far everything is exact. A complete manifold of excitation operators, however, means that all excited states are considered, i.e. a full Cl approach. Approximate versions of propagator methods may be generated by restricting the excitation level, i.e. tmncating h. A complete specification furthermore requires a selection of the reference, normally taken as either an HF or MCSCF wave function. 

More recently Equation Of Motion (EOM) methods have been used in connection with other types of wave functions, most notably coupled cluster.Such EOM methods are closely related to propagator methods, and give working equations which are similar to those encountered in propagator theory. 

The wave function is an irreducible entity completely defined by the Schrbdinger equation and this should be the cote of the message conveyed to students. It is not useful to introduce any hidden variables, not even Feynman paths. The wave function is an element of a well defined state space, which is neither a classical particle, nor a classical field. Its nature is fully and accurately defined by studying how it evolves and interacts and this is the only way that it can be completely and correctly understood. The evolution and interaction is accurately described by the Schrbdinger equation or the Heisenberg equation or the Feynman propagator or any other representation of the dynamical equation. 

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