Wavepackets semiclassical

Herman M F and Kluk E 1984 A semiclassical justification for the use of non-spreading wavepackets in dynamics calculations Chem. Phys. 91 27... 

Coherent states and diverse semiclassical approximations to molecular wavepackets are essentially dependent on the relative phases between the wave components. Due to the need to keep this chapter to a reasonable size, we can mention here only a sample of original works (e.g., [202-205]) and some summaries [206-208]. In these, the reader will come across the Maslov index [209], which we pause to mention here, since it links up in a natural way to the modulus-phase relations described in Section III and with the phase-fiacing method in Section IV. The Maslov index relates to the phase acquired when the semiclassical wave function haverses a zero (or a singularity, if there be one) and it (and, particularly, its sign) is the consequence of the analytic behavior of the wave function in the complex time plane. 

To add non-adiabatic effects to semiclassical methods, it is necessary to allow the trajectories to sample the different surfaces in a way that simulates the population transfer between electronic states. This sampling is most commonly done by using surface hopping techniques or Ehrenfest dynamics. Recent reviews of these methods are found in [30-32]. Gaussian wavepacket methods have also been extended to include non-adiabatic effects [33,34]. Of particular interest here is the spawning method of Martinez, Ben-Nun, and Levine [35,36], which has been used already in a number of direct dynamics studies. 

The time-dependent Schrddinger equation governs the evolution of a quantum mechanical system from an initial wavepacket. In the case of a semiclassical simulation, this wavepacket must be translated into a set of initial positions and momenta for the pseudoparticles. What the initial wavepacket is depends on the process being studied. This may either be a physically defined situation, such as a molecular beam experiment in which the paiticles are defined in particular quantum states moving relative to one another, or a theoretically defined situation suitable for a mechanistic study of the type what would happen if. .. 

The standard semiclassical methods are surface hopping and Ehrenfest dynamics (also known as the classical path (CP) method [197]), and they will be outlined below. More details and comparisons can be found in [30-32]. The multiple spawning method, based on Gaussian wavepacket propagation, is also outlined below. See [1] for further infomiation on both quantum and semiclassical non-adiabatic dynamics methods. 

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... 

Full quantum wavepacket studies on large molecules are impossible. This is not only due to the scaling of the method (exponential with the number of degrees of freedom), but also due to the difficulties of obtaining accurate functions of the coupled PES, which are required as analytic functions. Direct dynamics studies of photochemical systems bypass this latter problem by calculating the PES on-the-fly as it is required, and only where it is required. This is an exciting new field, which requires a synthesis of two existing branches of theoretical chemistry—electronic structure theory (quantum chemistiy) and mixed nuclear dynamics methods (quantum-semiclassical). 

B. Semiclassical Herman-Kluk-Type Frozen Gaussian Wavepacket Propagation Method... 

One can also ask about the relationship of the FMS method, as opposed to AIMS, with other wavepacket and semiclassical nonadiabatic dynamics methods. We first compare FMS to previous methods in cases where there is no spawning, and then proceed to compare with previous methods for nonadiabatic dynamics. We stress that we have always allowed for spawning in our applications of the method, and indeed the whole point of the FMS method is to address problems where localized nuclear quantum mechanical effects are important. Nevertheless, it is useful to place the method in context by asking how it relates to previous methods in the absence of its adaptive basis set character. There have been many attempts to use Gaussian basis functions in wavepacket dynamics, and we cannot mention all of these. Instead, we limit ourselves to those methods that we feel are most closely related to FMS, with apologies to those that are not included. A nice review that covers some of the... 

In this semiclassical calculation, we use only one wavepacket (the classical path limit), that is, a Gaussian wavepacket, rather than the general expansion of the total wave function. Equation (39) then takes the following form ... 

In what is called BO MD, the nuclear wavepacket is simulated by a swarm of trajectories. We emphasize here that this does not necessarily mean that the nuclei are being treated classically. The difference is in the chosen initial conditions. A fully classical treatment takes the initial positions and momenta from a classical ensemble. The use of quantum mechanical distributions instead leads to a semiclassical simulation. The important topic of choosing initial conditions is the subject of Section II.C. 

How well do these quantum-semiclassical methods work in describing the dynamics of non-adiabatic systems There are two sources of errors, one due to the approximations in the methods themselves, and the other due to errors in their application, for example, lack of convergence. For example, an obvious source of error in surface hopping and Ehrenfest dynamics is that coherence effects due to the phases of the nuclear wavepackets on the different surfaces are not included. This information is important for the description of short-time (few femtoseconds) quantum mechanical effects. For longer timescales, however, this loss of information should be less of a problem as dephasing washes out this information. Note that surface hopping should be run in an adiabatic representation, whereas the other methods show no preference for diabatic or adiabatic. 

Classical behavior is expected to occur on time scales that are shorter than the Heisenberg time (3.4). As the energy of the initial wavepacket increases, the quasiclassical and semiclassical regimes will extend over longer time intervals if the level density increases, as is usually the case in bounded... 

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