David Gelman

Dissipative quantum dynamics with the surrogate Hamiltonian approach. A comparison between spin and harmonic baths

The dissipative quantum dynamics of an anharmonic oscillator coupled to a bath is studied with the purpose of elucidating the differences between the relaxation to a spin bath and to a harmonic bath. Converged results are obtained for the spin bath by the surrogate Hamiltonian approach. This method is based on constructing a system-bath Hamiltonian, with a finite but large number of spin bath modes, that mimics exactly a bath with an infinite number of modes for a finite time interval. Convergence with respect to the number of simultaneous excitations of bath modes can be checked. The results are compared to calculations that include a finite number of harmonic modes carried out by using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method of Nest and Meyer [J. Chem. Phys. 119, 24 (2003)]. In the weak coupling regime, at zero temperature and for small excitations of the primary system, both methods converge to the Markovian limit. When initially the primary system is significantly excited, the spin bath can saturate restricting the energy acceptance. An interaction term between bath modes that spreads the excitation eliminates the saturation. The loss of phase between two cat states has been analyzed and the results for the spin and harmonic baths are almost identical. For stronger couplings, the dynamics induced by the two types of baths deviate. The accumulation and degree of entanglement between the bath modes have been characterized. Only in the spin bath the dynamics generate entanglement between the bath modes.

Stochastic surrogate Hamiltonian

The surrogate Hamiltonian is a general scheme to simulate the many body quantum dynamics composed of a primary system coupled to a bath. The method has been based on a representative bath Hamiltonian composed of two-level systems that is able to mimic the true system-bath dynamics up to a prespecified time. The original surrogate Hamiltonian method is limited to short time dynamics since the size of the Hilbert space required to obtain convergence grows exponentially with time. By randomly swapping bath modes with a secondary thermal reservoir, the method can simulate quantum dynamics of the primary system from short times to thermal equilibrium. By averaging a small number of realizations converged values of the system observables are obtained avoiding the exponential increase in resources. The method is demonstrated for the equilibration of a molecular oscillator with a thermal bath.

Dissipative dynamics of a system passing through a conical intersection: Ultrafast pump-probe observables

The dynamics of a system incorporating a conical intersection, in the presence of a dissipative environment, is studied with the purpose of identifying observable ultrafast spectroscopic signatures. A model system consisting of two vibronically coupled electronic states with two nuclear degrees of freedom is constructed. Dissipation is treated by two different methods, Lindblad semigroup formalism and the surrogate Hamiltonian approach. Pump-probe experimental expectation values such as transient emission and transient absorption are calculated and compared to the adiabatic and diabatic population transfer. The ultrafast population transfer reflecting the conical intersection is not mirrored in transient absorption measurements such as the recovery of the bleach. Emission from the excited state can be suppressed on the ultrafast time scale, but the existence of a conical intersection is only one of the possible mechanisms that can provide ultrafast damping of emission.

Tunneling dynamics with a mixed quantum-classical method: Quantum corrected propagator combined with frozen Gaussian wave packets

The recently developed mixed quantum-classical propagation method is extended to treat tunneling effects in multidimensional systems. Formulated for systems consisting of a quantum primary part and a classical bath of heavier particles, the method employs a frozen Gaussian description for the bath degrees of freedom, while the dynamics of the quantum subsystem is governed by a corrected propagator. The corrections are defined in terms of matrix elements of zeroth-order propagators. The method is applied to a model system of a double-well potential bilinearly coupled to a harmonic oscillator. The extension of the method, which includes nondiagonal elements of the correction propagator, enables an accurate treatment of tunneling in an antisymmetric double-well potential.

New mixed quantum∕semiclassical propagation method

The authors developed a new method for calculating the quantum evolution of multidimensional systems, for cases in which the system can be assumed to consist of a quantum subsystem and a bath subsystem of heavier atoms. The method combines two ideas: starting from a simple frozen Gaussian description of the bath subsystem, then calculate quantum corrections to the propagation of the quantum subsystem. This follows from recent work by one of them, showing how one can calculate corrections to approximate evolution schemes, even when the Hamiltonian that corresponds to these approximate schemes is unknown. Then, they take the limit in which the width of the frozen Gaussians approaches zero, which makes the corrections to the evolution of the quantum subsystem depend only on classical bath coordinates. The test calculations they present use low-dimensional systems, in which comparison to exact quantum dynamics is feasible.

Minimizing broadband excitation under dissipative conditions

Optimal control theory is employed for the task of minimizing the excited-state population of a dye molecule in solution. The spectrum of the excitation pulse is contained completely in the absorption band of the molecule. Only phase control is studied which is equivalent to optimizing the transmission of the pulse through the medium. The molecular model explicitly includes two electronic states and a single vibrational mode. The other degrees of freedom are classified as bath modes. The surrogate Hamiltonian method is employed to incorporate these bath degrees of freedom. Their influence can be classified as electronic dephasing and vibrational relaxation. In accordance with experimental results, minimal excitation is associated with a negatively chirped pulses. Optimal pulses with more complex transient structure are found to be superior to linearly chirped pulses. The difference is enhanced when the fluence is increased. The improvement degrades when dissipative effects become more dominant.

Modeling vibrational resonance in linear hydrocarbon chain with a mixed quantum-classical method

The quantum dynamics of a vibrational excitation in a linear hydrocarbon model system is studied with a new mixed quantum-classical method. The method is suited to treat many-body systems consisting of a low dimensional quantum primary part coupled to a classical bath. The dynamics of the primary part is governed by the quantum corrected propagator, with the corrections defined in terms of matrix elements of zeroth order propagators. The corrections are taken to the classical limit by introducing the frozen Gaussian approximation for the bath degrees of freedom. The ability of the method to describe dynamics of multidimensional systems has been tested. The results obtained by the method have been compared to previous quantum simulations performed with the quasiadiabatic path integral method.

Finite temperature application of the corrected propagator method to reactive dynamics in a condensed-phase environment

The recently proposed mixed quantum-classical method is extended to applications at finite temperatures. The method is designed to treat complex systems consisting of a low-dimensional quantum part (the primary system) coupled to a dissipative bath described classically. The method is based on a formalism showing how to systematically correct the approximate zeroth-order evolution rule. The corrections are defined in terms of the total quantum Hamiltonian and are taken to the classical limit by introducing the frozen Gaussian approximation for the bath degrees of freedom. The evolution of the primary system is governed by the corrected propagator yielding the exact quantum dynamics. The method has been tested on a standard model system describing proton transfer in a condensed-phase environment: a symmetric double-well potential bilinearly coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Flux correlation functions and thermal rate constants have been calculated at two different temperatures for a range of coupling strengths. The results have been compared to the fully quantum simulations of Topaler and Makri [J. Chem. Phys. 101, 7500 (1994)] with the real path integral method.