Treating singularities present in the Sutcliffe-Tennyson vibrational Hamiltonian in orthogonal internal coordinates

Use of a nondirect-product basis for treating singularities in triatomic rotational–vibrational calculations

A technique has been developed which in principle allows the determination of the full rotational-vibrational eigenspectrum of triatomic molecules by treating the important singularities present in the triatomic rotational-vibrational kinetic energy operator given in Jacobi coordinates and the R(1) embedding. The singular term related to the diatom-type coordinate, R(1), deemed to be unimportant for spectroscopic applications, is given no special attention. The work extends a previous [J. Chem. Phys., 2005, 122, 024101] vibration-only approach and employs a generalized finite basis representation (GFBR) resulting in a nonsymmetric Hamiltonian matrix [J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 014110]. The basis set to be used is obtained by taking the direct product of a 1-D DVR basis, related to R(1), with a 5-D nondirect-product basis, the latter formed by coupling Bessel-DVR functions depending on the distance-type coordinate causing the singularity, associated Legendre polynomials depending on the Jacobi angle, and rotational functions depending on the three Euler angles. The robust implicitly restarted Arnoldi method within the ARPACK package is used for the determination of a number of eigenvalues of the nonsymmetric Hamiltonian matrix. The suitability of the proposed approach is shown by the determination of the rotational-vibrational energy levels of the ground electronic state of H(3)(+) somewhat above its barrier to linearity. Convergence of the eigenenergies is checked by an alternative approach, employing a Hamiltonian expressed in Radau coordinates, a standard direct-product basis, and no treatment of the singularities.

Application of Coulomb wave function discrete variable representation to atomic systems in strong laser fields

We present an efficient and accurate grid method for solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation for an atomic system interacting with an intense laser pulse. Instead of the usual finite difference (FD) method, the radial coordinate is discretized using the discrete variable representation (DVR) constructed from Coulomb wave functions. For an accurate description of the ionization dynamics of atomic systems, the Coulomb wave function discrete variable representation (CWDVR) method needs three to ten times fewer grid points than the FD method. The resultant grid points of the CWDVR are distributed unevenly so that one has a finer grid near the origin and a coarser one at larger distances. The other important advantage of the CWDVR method is that it treats the Coulomb singularity accurately and gives a good representation of continuum wave functions. The time propagation of the wave function is implemented using the well-known Arnoldi method. As examples, the present method is applied to multiphoton ionization of both the H atom and the H(-) ion in intense laser fields. The short-time excitation and ionization dynamics of H by an abruptly introduced static electric field is also investigated. For a wide range of field parameters, ionization rates calculated using the present method are in excellent agreement with those from other accurate theoretical calculations.

Finite basis representations with nondirect product basis functions having structure similar to that of spherical harmonics

The currently most efficient finite basis representation (FBR) method [Corey et al., in Numerical Grid Methods and Their Applications to Schrodinger Equation, NATO ASI Series C, edited by C. Cerjan (Kluwer Academic, New York, 1993), Vol. 412, p. 1; Bramley et al., J. Chem. Phys. 100, 6175 (1994)] designed specifically to deal with nondirect product bases of structures phi(n) (l)(s)f(l)(u), chi(m) (l)(t)phi(n) (l)(s)f(l)(u), etc., employs very special l-independent grids and results in a symmetric FBR. While highly efficient, this method is not general enough. For instance, it cannot deal with nondirect product bases of the above structure efficiently if the functions phi(n) (l)(s) [and/or chi(m) (l)(t)] are discrete variable representation (DVR) functions of the infinite type. The optimal-generalized FBR(DVR) method [V. Szalay, J. Chem. Phys. 105, 6940 (1996)] is designed to deal with general, i.e., direct and/or nondirect product, bases and grids. This robust method, however, is too general, and its direct application can result in inefficient computer codes [Czako et al., J. Chem. Phys. 122, 024101 (2005)]. It is shown here how the optimal-generalized FBR method can be simplified in the case of nondirect product bases of structures phi(n) (l)(s)f(l)(u), chi(m) (l)(t)phi(n) (l)(s)f(l)(u), etc. As a result the commonly used symmetric FBR is recovered and simplified nonsymmetric FBRs utilizing very special l-dependent grids are obtained. The nonsymmetric FBRs are more general than the symmetric FBR in that they can be employed efficiently even when the functions phi(n) (l)(s) [and/or chi(m) (l)(t)] are DVR functions of the infinite type. Arithmetic operation counts and a simple numerical example presented show unambiguously that setting up the Hamiltonian matrix requires significantly less computer time when using one of the proposed nonsymmetric FBRs than that in the symmetric FBR. Therefore, application of this nonsymmetric FBR is more efficient than that of the symmetric FBR when one wants to diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix either by a direct or via a basis-set contraction method. Enormous decrease of computer time can be achieved, with respect to a direct application of the optimal-generalized FBR, by employing one of the simplified nonsymmetric FBRs as is demonstrated in noniterative calculations of the low-lying vibrational energy levels of the H3+ molecular ion. The arithmetic operation counts of the Hamiltonian matrix vector products and the properties of a recently developed diagonalization method [Andreozzi et al., J. Phys. A Math. Gen. 35, L61 (2002)] suggest that the nonsymmetric FBR applied along with this particular diagonalization method is suitable to large scale iterative calculations. Whether or not the nonsymmetric FBR is competitive with the symmetric FBR in large-scale iterative calculations still has to be investigated numerically.