Implementation of time-dependent Hartree-Fock in real space

TL;DR

This paper presents the implementation of time-dependent Hartree-Fock in real space within the Octopus code, overcoming computational challenges with an adaptive exchange method, and compares results with Gaussian basis sets.

Contribution

It introduces a practical implementation of TDHF in real space using ACE in Octopus, enabling efficient excited-state calculations for large molecules.

Findings

Close agreement with GTO-based results

Finer grid needed for TDHF convergence

Identified benchmarking subtleties for Rydberg states

Abstract

Time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) is one of the fundamental post-Hartree-Fock (HF) methods to describe excited states. In its Tamm-Dancoff form, equivalent to Configuration Interaction Singles, it is still widely used and particularly applicable to big molecules where more accurate methods may be unfeasibly expensive. However, it is rarely implemented in real space, mostly because of the expensive nature of the exact-exchange potential in real space. Compared to widely used Gaussian-type orbitals (GTO) basis sets, real space often offers easier implementation of equations and more systematic convergence of Rydberg states, as well as favorable scaling, effective domain parallelization, flexible boundary conditions, and ability to treat model systems. We implemented TDHF in the Octopus real-space code as a step toward linear-response hybrid time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT), other post-HF methods, and ensemble density-functional theory methods involving exact exchange. Calculation of HF's non-local exact exchange is very expensive in real space. We overcome this limitation with Octopus' implementation of Adaptively Compressed Exchange (ACE), and find the appropriate mixing scheme and starting point to complete the ground-state calculation in a practical amount of time, and thus enable TDHF. We compared our results to those from GTOs on a set of small molecules and confirmed close agreement of results, though with larger deviations than in the case of semi-local TDDFT. We find that convergence of TDHF demands a finer real-space grid than semi-local TDDFT. We also present the subtleties in benchmarking a real-space calculation against GTOs, relating to Rydberg and vacuum states.