Abstract
In the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, the electronic wave function is typically real-valued and hence the electronic flux density (current density) seems to vanish. This is unfortunate for chemistry, because it precludes the possibility to monitor the electronic motion associated with the nuclear motion during chemical rearrangements from a Born-Oppenheimer simulation of the process. We study an electronic flux density obtained from a correction to the electronic wave function. This correction is derived via nuclear velocity perturbation theory applied in the framework of the exact factorization of electrons and nuclei. To compute the correction, only the ground state potential energy surface and the electronic wave function are needed. For a model system, we demonstrate that this electronic flux density approximates the true one very well, for coherent tunneling dynamics as well as for over-the-barrier scattering, and already for mass ratios between electrons and nuclei that are much larger than the true mass ratios.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3316-3325 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Physical Chemistry A |
Volume | 120 |
Issue number | 19 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 19 May 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Partial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 762) and from the European Commission (FP7-NMPCRONOS) is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.