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The time-dependent variational principle is used to optimize the linear and nonlinear parameters of Gaussian basis functions to solve the time-dependent Schrodinger equation in 1 and 3 dimensions for a one-body soft Coulomb potential in a laser field. The accuracy is tested comparing the solution to finite difference grid calculations using several examples. The approach is not limited to one particle systems and the example presented for two electrons demonstrates the potential to tackle larger systems using correlated basis functions., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Physical Review E

Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) has been applied to the calculation of absorption spectra for two-dimensional atomic layer materials. We reveal that the character of the first bright exciton state of bi-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is dependent on the layer stacking type through the use of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) calculations, i.e., the electron and hole in the AA$'$ stacking are present in the same layer (intralayer exciton) while the A$'$B stacking exhibits an interlayer exciton. We demonstrate that the TDDFT approach with the meta-generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation (XC) potential, and the Bootstrap XC kernel can capture the absorption peaks that correspond to these excitons without computationally heavy GW and Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations. We also show that the TDDFT method provides the absorption spectra for mono-layer transition metal dichalcogenides, MoS$_2$ and MoSe$_2$. This study confirms the validity of the TDDFT approach for the first investigation of the optical properties of complex two-dimensional atomic layer materials to which the MBPT calculation can not be readily applied., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

Electron-positron interactions have been utilized in various fields of science. Here we develop time-dependent multi-component density functional theory to study the coupled electron-positron dynamics from first principles. We prove that there are coupled time-dependent single-particle equations that can provide the electron and positron density dynamics, and derive the formally exact expression for their effective potentials. Introducing the adiabatic local density approximation to time dependent electron-positron correlation, we apply the theory to the dynamics of a positronic lithium hydride molecule under a laser field. We demonstrate the significance of electron-positron dynamical correlation by revealing the complex positron detachment mechanism and the suppression of electronic resonant excitation by the screening effect of the positron., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

It was recently shown [Y. Suzuki, L. Lacombe, K. Watanabe, and N. T. Maitra, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 263401 (2017)] that peak and valley structures in the exact exchange-correlation potential of time-dependent density functional theory are crucial for accurately capturing time-resolved dynamics of electron scattering in a model one-dimensional system. Approximate functionals used today miss these structures and con- sequently underestimate the scattering probability. The dynamics can vary significantly depending on the choice of the initial Kohn-Sham state, and, with a judicious choice, a recently-proposed non-adiabatic ap- proximation provides extremely accurate dynamics on approach to the target but this ultimately also fails to capture reflection accurately. Here we provide more details, using a model of electron-He + as illustration, in both the inelastic and elastic regimes. In the elastic case, the time-resolved picture is contrasted with the time-independent picture of scattering, where the linear response theory of TDDFT can be used to extract transmission and reflection coefficients. Although the exact functional yields identical scattering probabil- ities when used in this way as it does in the time-resolved picture, we show that the currently-available approximate functionals do not, even when they have the correct asymptotic behavior., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We identify peak and valley structures in the exact exchange-correlation potential of time-dependent density functional theory that are crucial for time-resolved electron scattering in a model one-dimensional system. These structures are completely missed by adiabatic approximations which consequently significantly underestimate the scattering probability. A recently-proposed non-adiabatic approximation is shown to correctly capture the approach of the electron to the target when the initial Kohn-Sham state is chosen judiciously, and is more accurate than standard adiabatic functionals, but it ultimately fails to accurately capture reflection. These results may explain the underestimate of scattering probabilities in some recent studies on molecules and surfaces., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

The exact factorization of an electron-nuclear wavefunction [A. Abedi, N. T. Maitra, and E. K. U. Gross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 123002 (2010)] allows us to define the rigorous nuclear time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation (TDSE) with a time-dependent potential-energy surface (TDPES) that fully accounts for the coupling to the electronic motion and drives the nuclear wavepacket dynamics. Here, we study whether the propagation of multiple classical trajectories can reproduce the quantum nuclear motion in strong-field processes when their motions are governed by the quantum Hamilton-Jacobi equation derived by applying Bohmian mechanics to this exact nuclear TDSE. We demonstrate that multiple classical trajectories propagated by the force from the gradient of the exact TDPES plus the Bohmian quantum potential can reproduce the strong-field dissociation dynamics of a one-dimensional model of the H$_2^+$ molecule. Our results show that the force from the Bohmian quantum potential plays a non-negligible role in yielding quantum nuclear dynamics in the strong-field process studied here, where ionization and/or splitting of nuclear probability density occurs., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

For a rigorous quantum simulation of nonadiabatic dynamics of electrons and nuclei, knowledge of not only first-order but also second-order nonadiabatic couplings (NAC), is required. Here we propose a method to efficiently calculate second-order NAC from time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), on the basis of the Casida ansatz adapted for the computation of first-order NAC, which has been justified in our previous work and can be shown to be valid for calculating second-order NAC between ground state and singly excited states within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation. Test calculations of second-order NAC in the immediate vicinity of Jahn-Teller and Renner-Teller intersections show that calculation results from TDDFT, combined with modified linear response theory, agree well with the prediction from the Jahn-Teller / Renner-Teller models. Contrary to the diverging behavior of first-order NAC near all types of intersection points, the Cartesian components of second-order NAC are shown to be negligibly small near Renner-Teller glancing intersections, while they are significantly large near the Jahn-Teller conical intersections. Nevertheless, the components of second-order NAC can cancel each other to a large extent in Jahn-Teller systems, indicating the background of neglecting second-order NAC in practical dynamics simulations. On the other hand, it is shown that such a cancellation becomes less effective in an elliptic Jahn-Teller system and thus the role of second-order NAC needs to be evaluated in the rigorous framework. Our study shows that TDDFT is promising to provide accurate data of NAC for full quantum mechanical simulation of nonadiabatic processes., Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures

We have developed a new theoretical formalism for phonon transport in nanostructures using the nonequilibrium phonon Green's function technique and have applied it to thermal conduction in defective carbon nanotubes. The universal quantization of low-temperature thermal conductance in carbon nanotubes can be observed even in the presence of local structural defects such as vacancies and Stone-Wales defects, since the long wavelength acoustic phonons are not scattered by local defects. At room temperature, however, thermal conductance is critically affected by defect scattering since incident phonons are scattered by localized phonons around the defects. We find a remarkable change from quantum to classical features for the thermal transport through defective CNTs with increasing temperature., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

The effect of molecular vibrations on electronic transport is investigated with the smallest fullerene C20 bridge, utilizing the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function techniques combined with the tight-binding molecular-dynamics method. Large discontinuous steps appear in the differential conductance when the applied bias-voltage matches particular vibrational energies. The magnitude of the step is found to vary considerably with the vibrational mode and to depend on the local electronic states besides the strength of electron-vibration coupling. On the basis of this finding, a novel way to control the molecular motion by adjusting the gate voltage is proposed., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

Field emission (FE) and the electronic-states origin of graphitic nanostructures were investigated by first-principles calculations based on time-dependent density-functional theory. We find that the FE current from graphitic ribbons changes remarkably depending on the hydrogen termination and the direction of the applied electric field. Also, the FE current from graphene sheets shows a dramatic increase around vacancy defects. We verified, through the analysis of local electronic structures and energy distributions of emitted electrons, that the dangling-bond (or $\sigma$) character is responsible for these results and governs the nature of the FE of graphitic nanostructures., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The thermal properties of graphitic ribbon are investigated based on Brenner's empirical potential. The reliability and usefulness of the empirical potential to address the thermal properties of covalent-bonded carbon nanostructures are verified through a comparison of phonon dispersion relations and the density of states of carbon nanotubes with first-principles calculations. The analysis reveals unique edge-phonon states that are highly localized at edge carbon atoms of both armchair and zigzag ribbons. Applying the phonon dispersion relations to the Landauer formula of phonon transport, the quantization and universal features of the low-temperature thermal conductance of graphitic ribbon are elucidated, and it is found that the width of the quantization plateau in the low-temperature region is inversely proportional to the ribbon width., Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures

The universal features of quantized thermal conductance of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are revealed through theoretical analysis based on the Landauer theory of heat transport. The phonon-derived thermal conductance of semiconducting CNTs exhibits a universal quantization in the low temperature limit, independent of the radius or atomic geometry. The temperature dependence follows a single curve given in terms of temperature scaled by the phonon energy gap. The thermal conductance of metallic CNTs has an additional contribution from electronic states, which also exhibits quantized behavior up to room temperature., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett