Time-dependent density-functional description of nuclear dynamics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and application of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) for nuclear dynamics, highlighting recent advances in linear response, real-time calculations, and collective motion modeling.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of the collective submanifold in TDDFT and discusses new methods for quantizing nuclear collective dynamics.

Findings

Linear response calculations effectively describe nuclear collective modes.

Real-time TDDFT has advanced to simulate nuclear collision phenomena.

Quantum fluctuations are modeled through collective coordinates and momenta.

Abstract

We present the basic concepts and recent developments in the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) for describing nuclear dynamics at low energy. The symmetry breaking is inherent in nuclear energy density functionals (EDFs), which provides a practical description of important correlations at the ground state. Properties of elementary modes of excitation are strongly influenced by the symmetry breaking and can be studied with TDDFT. In particular, a number of recent developments in the linear response calculation have demonstrated their usefulness in description of collective modes of excitation in nuclei. Unrestricted real-time calculations have also become available in recent years, with new developments for quantitative description of nuclear collision phenomena. There are, however, limitations in the real-time approach; for instance, it cannot describe the many-body quantum tunneling. Thus, we treat the quantum fluctuations associated with slow collective motions assuming that time evolution of densities are determined by a few collective coordinates and momenta. The concept of collective submanifold is introduced in the phase space associated with the TDDFT and used to quantize the collective dynamics. Selected applications are presented to demonstrate the usefulness and quality of the new approaches. Finally, conceptual differences between nuclear and electronic TDDFT are discussed, with some recent applications to studies of electron dynamics in the linear response and under a strong laser field.