An open‐source framework for analyzing N‐electron dynamics. I. Multideterminantal wave functions. Issue 17 (24th April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pohl, Vincent; Hermann, Gunter; Tremblay, Jean Christophe
• Is Part Of: Journal of computational chemistry. Volume 38:Issue 17(2017)
• Page Start: 1515
• Page End: 1527
• Publication Date: 2017-04-24
• Subjects: correlated electron dynamics -- Slater‐Condon rules -- multideterminantal wave function -- electronic flux density -- electron density -- electronic difference density -- electronic current density; Chemistry -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 542.85
• DOI: 10.1002/jcc.24792
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0192-8651

Abstract

Abstract : The aim of the present contribution is to provide a framework for analyzing and visualizing the correlated many‐electron dynamics of molecular systems, where an explicitly time‐dependent electronic wave packet is represented as a linear combination of N ‐electron wave functions. The central quantity of interest is the electronic flux density, which contains all information about the transient electronic density, the associated phase, and their temporal evolution. It is computed from the associated one‐electron operator by reducing the multideterminantal, many‐electron wave packet using the Slater‐Condon rules. Here, we introduce a general tool for post‐processing multideterminant configuration‐interaction wave functions obtained at various levels of theory. It is tailored to extract directly the data from the output of standard quantum chemistry packages using atom‐centered Gaussian‐type basis functions. The procedure is implemented in the open‐source Python programdet CI@ORBKIT, which shares and builds on the modular design of our recently published post‐processing toolbox (Hermann et al., J. Comput. Chem. 2016, 37, 1511). The new procedure is applied to ultrafast charge migration processes in different molecular systems, demonstrating its broad applicability. Convergence of the N ‐electron dynamics with respect to the electronic structure theory level and basis set size is investigated. This provides an assessment of the robustness of qualitative and quantitative statements that can be made concerning dynamical features observed in charge migration simulations. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Abstract : Unraveling correlated electron dynamics, this paper introduces an open‐source Python framework to post‐process determinant‐based configuration‐interaction data from standard quantum chemistry packages. The procedure builds a library of transition moments of selected one‐electron operators. The library can be used to visualize and analyze the time‐evolution of a molecular system, represented as a time‐dependent linear combination of multideterminantal wave functions.