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We show how linear vibronic spectra in molecular systems can be simulated efficiently using first-principles approaches without relying on the explicit use of multiple Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surfaces. We demonstrate and analyze the performance of mean-field and beyond-mean-field dynamics techniques for the H2 molecule in one dimension, in the later case capturing the vibronic structure quite accurately, including quantum Franck-Condon effects. In a practical application of this methodology we simulate the absorption spectrum of benzene in full dimensionality using time-dependent density functional theory at the multitrajectory Ehrenfest level, finding good qualitative agreement with experiment and significant spectral reweighting compared to commonly used single-trajectory Ehrenfest dynamics. These results form the foundation for nonlinear spectral calculations and show promise for future application in capturing phenomena associated with vibronic coupling in more complex molecular and potentially condensed phase systems This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC-2015-AdG694097), the Cluster of Excellence Advanced Imaging of Matter (AIM), JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20K14382, Grupos Consolidados (IT1249-19), and SFB925. The Flatiron Institute is a division of the Simons Foundation

The formalism of the generalized quantum master equation (GQME) is an effective tool to simultaneously increase the accuracy and the efficiency of quasiclassical trajectory methods in the simulation of nonadiabatic quantum dynamics. The GQME expresses correlation functions in terms of a non-Markovian equation of motion, involving memory kernels that are typically fast-decaying and can therefore be computed by short-time quasiclassical trajectories. In this paper, we study the approximate solution of the GQME, obtained by calculating the kernels with two methods: Ehrenfest mean-field theory and spin-mapping. We test the approaches on a range of spin–boson models with increasing energy bias between the two electronic levels and place a particular focus on the long-time limits of the populations. We find that the accuracy of the predictions of the GQME depends strongly on the specific technique used to calculate the kernels. In particular, spin-mapping outperforms Ehrenfest for all the systems studied. The problem of unphysical negative electronic populations affecting spin-mapping is resolved by coupling the method with the master equation. Conversely, Ehrenfest in conjunction with the GQME can predict negative populations, despite the fact that the populations calculated from direct dynamics are positive definite., The Journal of Chemical Physics, 157 (23), ISSN:0021-9606, ISSN:1089-7690

Mean field theory is applied to nonequilibrium thermal energy transport in a model molecular junction. An approximation to the total time-dependent heat current in the junction is constructed using an ensemble of Ehrenfest trajectories, and the average heat current in the steady state is obtained. The accuracy of this treatment is verified through benchmark comparisons with exact quantum mechanical results, and various approximate quantum transport theories, for the nonequilibrium spin-boson model. The performance of the multi-trajectory Ehrenfest approach is found to be quite robust, displaying good accuracy in intermediate cases that remain elusive to many perturbative approximations, and in the strong coupling limit where many methods break down. Thus, mean field theory and related trajectory-based approximate quantum dynamics methods emerge as a promising toolkit for the study of transport properties in nanoscale systems.

The mapping approach addresses the mismatch between the continuous nuclear phase space and discrete electronic states by creating an extended, fully continuous phase space using a set of harmonic oscillators to encode the populations and coherences of the electronic states. Existing quasiclassical dynamics methods based on mapping, such as the linearised semiclassical initial value representation (LSC-IVR) and Poisson bracket mapping equation (PBME) approaches, have been shown to fail in predicting the correct relaxation of electronic-state populations following an initial excitation. Here we generalise our recently published modification to the standard quasiclassical approximation for simulating quantum correlation functions. We show that the electronic-state population operator in any system can be exactly rewritten as a sum of a traceless operator and the identity operator. We show that by treating the latter at a quantum level instead of using the mapping approach, the accuracy of traditional quasiclassical dynamics methods can be drastically improved, without changes to their underlying equations of motion. We demonstrate this approach for the seven-state Frenkel-exciton model of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson light harvesting complex, showing that our modification significantly improves the accuracy of traditional mapping approaches when compared to numerically exact quantum results.

Methods derived from the generalized quantum master equation (GQME) framework have provided the basis for elucidating energy and charge transfer in systems ranging from molecular solids to photosynthetic complexes. Recently, the non-perturbative combination of the GQME with quantum-classical methods has resulted in approaches whose accuracy and efficiency exceed those of the original quantum-classical schemes while offering significant accuracy improvements over perturbative expansions of the GQME. Here we show that, while the non-Markovian memory kernel required to propagate the GQME scales quartically with the number of subsystem states, the number of trajectories required scales at most quadratically when using quantum-classical methods to construct the kernel. We then present an algorithm that allows further acceleration of the quantum-classical GQME by providing a way to selectively sample the kernel matrix elements that are most important to the process of interest. We demonstrate the utility of these advances by applying the combination of Ehrenfest mean field theory with the GQME (MF-GQME) to models of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex and the light harvesting complex II (LHCII), with 7 and 14 states, respectively. This allows us to show that MF-GQME is able to accurately capture all the relevant dynamical time-scales in LHCII: the initial nonequilibrium population transfer on the femtosecond time-scale, the steady state-type trapping on the picosecond time-scale, and the long time population relaxation. Remarkably, all of these physical effects spanning tens of picoseconds can be encoded in a memory kernel that decays after only $\sim$65 fs., Comment: 17 page manuscript (7 figures), 3 page supplementary material; updated to published version of manuscript

In organic photovoltaic (OPV) systems, exciton dissociation and ultrafast charge separation at donor-acceptor heterojunctions both play a key role in controlling the efficiency of the conversion of excitation energy into free charge carriers. In this work, nonadiabatic dynamics simulations based on the quantum-classical Liouville equation, are employed to study the real-time dynamics of exciton dissociation and charge separation at a model donor-acceptor interface. Benchmark comparisons for a variety of low dimensional donor-acceptor chain models are performed to assess the accuracy of the quantum classical dynamics technique referred to as the forward-backward trajectory solution (FBTS). Although not always quantitative, the FBTS approach offers a reasonable balance between accuracy and computational cost. The short-time dynamics of exciton dissociation in related higher-dimensional lattice models for the interface are also investigated to assess the effect of the dimensionality on the first steps in the mechanism of charge carrier generation.

We describe vacuum fluctuations and photon-field correlations in interacting quantum mechanical light-matter systems, by generalizing the application of mixed quantum-classical dynamics techniques. We employ the multi-trajectory implementation of Ehrenfest mean field theory, traditionally developed for electron-nuclear problems, to simulate the spontaneous emission of radiation in a model quantum electrodynamical cavity-bound atomic system. We investigate the performance of this approach in capturing the dynamics of spontaneous emission from the perspective of both the atomic system and the cavity photon field, through a detailed comparison with exact benchmark quantum mechanical observables and correlation functions. By properly accounting for the quantum statistics of the vacuum field, while using mixed quantum-classical (mean field) trajectories to describe the evolution, we identify a surprisingly accurate and promising route towards describing quantum effects in realistic correlated light-matter systems.

Simulating the nonadiabatic dynamics of condensed-phase systems continues to pose a significant challenge for quantum dynamics methods. Approaches based on sampling classical trajectories within the mapping formalism, such as the linearized semiclassical initial value representation (LSC-IVR), can be used to approximate quantum correlation functions in dissipative environments. Such semiclassical methods however commonly fail in quantitatively predicting the electronic-state populations in the long-time limit. Here we present a suggestion to minimize this difficulty by splitting the problem into two parts, one of which involves the identity and treating this operator by quantum-mechanical principles rather than with classical approximations. This strategy is applied to numerical simulations of spin-boson model systems, showing its potential to drastically improve the performance of LSC-IVR and related methods with no change in the equations of motion or the algorithm in general, but rather by simply using different functional forms of the observables., The Journal of Chemical Physics, 150 (7), ISSN:0021-9606, ISSN:1089-7690

We introduce a simple ansatz for the wave function of a many-body system based on coupled forward and backward propagating semiclassical trajectories. This method is primarily aimed at, but not limited to, treating nonequilibrium dynamics in electron-phonon systems. The time evolution of the system is obtained from the Euler-Lagrange variational principle, and we show that this ansatz yields Ehrenfest mean-field theory in the limit that the forward and backward trajectories are orthogonal, and in the limit that they coalesce. We investigate accuracy and performance of this method by simulating electronic relaxation in the spin-boson model and the Holstein model. Although this method involves only pairs of semiclassical trajectories, it shows a substantial improvement over mean-field theory, capturing quantum coherence of nuclear dynamics as well as electron-nuclear correlations. This improvement is particularly evident in nonadiabatic systems, where the accuracy of this coupled trajectory method extends well beyond the perturbative electron-phonon coupling regime. This approach thus provides an attractive route forward to the ab initio description of relaxation processes, such as thermalization, in condensed phase systems.

We benchmark a selection of semiclassical and perturbative dynamics techniques by investigating the correlated evolution of a cavity-bound atomic system to assess their applicability to study problems involving strong light-matter interactions in quantum cavities. The model system of interest features spontaneous emission, interference, and strong coupling behaviour, and necessitates the consideration of vacuum fluctuations and correlated light-matter dynamics. We compare a selection of approximate dynamics approaches including fewest switches surface hopping, multi-trajectory Ehrenfest dynamics, linearized semiclasical dynamics, and partially linearized semiclassical dynamics. Furthermore, investigating self-consistent perturbative methods, we apply the Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy in the second Born approximation. With the exception of fewest switches surface hopping, all methods provide a reasonable level of accuracy for the correlated light-matter dynamics, with most methods lacking the capacity to fully capture interference effects., Comment: 12 pages , 11 figures

Generalized quantum master equations (GQMEs) are an important tool in modeling chemical and physical processes. For a large number of problems it has been shown that exact and approximate quantum dynamics methods can be made dramatically more efficient, and in the latter case more accurate, by proceeding via the GQME formalism. However, there are many situations where utilizing the GQME approach seems to offer no advantage over a direct evaluation of the property of interest. Here we provide a more detailed understanding of the conditions under which these methods will offer benefits. In particular, we derive exact expressions for the memory kernel for systems both in and out of equilibrium, and show the conditions under which these expressions will be guaranteed to return a result identical to that obtained from direct simulation. We also show the conditions which approximate methods must satisfy if they are to offer different results when used in conjunction with the GQME formalism. These exact analytical results thus provide new insights as to when proceeding via the GQME approach can improve the accuracy or efficiency of simulations., 5 pages, 0 figures

In this article we show how Ehrenfest mean field theory can be made both a more accurate and efficient method to treat nonadiabatic quantum dynamics by combining it with the generalized quantum master equation framework. The resulting mean field generalized quantum master equation (MF-GQME) approach is a non-perturbative and non-Markovian theory to treat open quantum systems without any restrictions on the form of the Hamiltonian that it can be applied to. By studying relaxation dynamics in a wide range of dynamical regimes, typical of charge and energy transfer, we show that MF-GQME provides a much higher accuracy than a direct application of mean field theory. In addition, these increases in accuracy are accompanied by computational speed-ups of between one and two orders of magnitude that become larger as the system becomes more nonadiabatic. This combination of quantum-classical theory and master equation techniques thus makes it possible to obtain the accuracy of much more computationally expensive approaches at a cost lower than even mean field dynamics, providing the ability to treat the quantum dynamics of atomistic condensed phase systems for long times., 10 pages, 6 figures

The evolution of a mixed quantum-classical system is expressed in the mapping formalism where discrete quantum states are mapped onto oscillator states, resulting in a phase space description of the quantum degrees of freedom. By defining projection operators onto the mapping states corresponding to the physical quantum states, it is shown that the mapping quantum-classical Liouville operator commutes with the projection operator so that the dynamics is confined to the physical space. It is also shown that a trajectory-based solution of this equation can be constructed that requires the simulation of an ensemble of entangled trajectories. An approximation to this evolution equation which retains only the Poisson bracket contribution to the evolution operator does admit a solution in an ensemble of independent trajectories but it is shown that this operator does not commute with the projection operators and the dynamics may take the system outside the physical space. The dynamical instabilities, utility and domain of validity of this approximate dynamics are discussed. The effects are illustrated by simulations on several quantum systems., 4 figures

The quantum-classical Liouville equation offers a rigorous approach to nonadiabatic quantum dynamics based on surface hopping type trajectories. However, in practice the applicability of this approach has been limited to short times owing to unfavorable numerical scaling. In this paper we show that this problem can be alleviated by combining it with a formally exact generalized quantum master equation treatment. This allows dramatic improvements in the efficiency of the approach in nonadiabatic regimes, making it computationally tractable to treat the quantum dynamics of complex systems for long times. We demonstrate our approach by applying it to a model of condensed phase charge transfer where our method is shown to be numerically exact in regimes where fewest-switches surface hopping and mean field approaches fail to obtain the either the correct rates or long-time populations., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures