Exact Factorization of the Photon-Electron-Nuclear Wavefunction: Formulation and Coupled-Trajectory Dynamics

10 June 2024, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

We employ the exact-factorization formalism to study the coupled dynamics of photons, electrons, and nuclei at the quantum mechanical level, proposing illustrative examples of model situations of nonadiabatic dynamics and spontaneous emission of electron-nuclear systems in the regime of strong light-matter coupling. We make a particular choice of factorization for such a multi-component system, where the full wavefunction is factored as a conditional electronic amplitude and a marginal photon-nuclear amplitude. Then, we apply the coupled-trajectory mixed quantum-classical (CTMQC) algorithm to perform trajectory-based simulations, by treating photonic and nuclear degrees of freedom on equal footing in terms of classical-like trajectories. The analysis of the time-dependent potentials of the theory along with the assessment of the performance of CTMQC allow us to point out some limitations of the current ap- proximations used in CTMQC. On the other hand, comparing CTMQC with other trajectory-based algorithms, namely multi-trajectory Ehrenfest and Tully surface hopping, demonstrates the better quality of CTMQC predictions.

Keywords

Polaritonic chemistry
Quantum-classical dynamics
Exact factorization
Nonadiabatic dynamics

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.