Quantum Dynamics in Open Quantum-Classical Systems

TL;DR

This paper reviews quantum-classical Liouville dynamics, addressing the challenges of modeling open quantum systems interacting with classical environments, and discusses methods for simulating their complex nonadiabatic dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of quantum-classical Liouville dynamics and related methods for simulating open quantum-classical systems, highlighting recent advances and challenges.

Findings

Quantum-classical Liouville dynamics effectively models open quantum systems.

Surface-hopping and mean-field methods are related to quantum-classical Liouville dynamics.

Challenges include handling coherence, decoherence, and nonadiabatic effects.

Abstract

Often quantum systems are not isolated and interactions with their environments must be taken into account. In such open quantum systems these environmental interactions can lead to decoherence and dissipation, which have a marked influence on the properties of the quantum system. In many instances the environment is well-approximated by classical mechanics, so that one is led to consider the dynamics of open quantum-classical systems. Since a full quantum dynamical description of large many-body systems is not currently feasible, mixed quantum-classical methods can provide accurate and computationally tractable ways to follow the dynamics of both the system and its environment. This review focuses on quantum-classical Liouville dynamics, one of several quantum-classical descriptions, and discusses the problems that arise when one attempts to combine quantum and classical mechanics, coherence and decoherence in quantum-classical systems, nonadiabatic dynamics, surface-hopping and mean-field theories and their relation to quantum-classical Liouville dynamics, as well as methods for simulating the dynamics.