Inclusion of inversion symmetry in centroid molecular dynamics: a possible avenue to recover quantum coherence

Operator Formulation of Feynman Path Centroid Dynamics for Rotations

An operator formulation of centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) for rotational degrees of freedom is presented. The quasi-density operator concept was introduced by Jang and Voth [J. Chem. Phys 111, 2357 (1999)] and is used to obtain a phase-space mapping without the need for discretized path integrals. The approach allows the calculation of approximate Kubo-transformed time correlation functions. The particle on a ring is chosen as an illustrative example. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach leads to accurate results when compared with exact diagonalization calculations for linear operators. At very low temperatures, it is found that rotational CMD yields results that are in exact agreement with the quantum dynamics of a spin-1 system.

Formulation of state projected centroid molecular dynamics: Microcanonical ensemble and connection to the Wigner distribution

A derivation of quantum statistical mechanics based on the concept of a Feynman path centroid is presented for the case of generalized density operators using the projected density operator formalism of Blinov and Roy [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 7822-7831 (2001)]. The resulting centroid densities, centroid symbols, and centroid correlation functions are formulated and analyzed in the context of the canonical equilibrium picture of Jang and Voth [J. Chem. Phys. 111, 2357-2370 (1999)]. The case where the density operator projects onto a particular energy eigenstate of the system is discussed, and it is shown that one can extract microcanonical dynamical information from double Kubo transformed correlation functions. It is also shown that the proposed projection operator approach can be used to formally connect the centroid and Wigner phase-space distributions in the zero reciprocal temperature β limit. A Centroid Molecular Dynamics (CMD) approximation to the state-projected exact quantum dynamics is proposed and proven to be exact in the harmonic limit. The state projected CMD method is also tested numerically for a quartic oscillator and a double-well potential and found to be more accurate than canonical CMD. In the case of a ground state projection, this method can resolve tunnelling splittings of the double well problem in the higher barrier regime where canonical CMD fails. Finally, the state-projected CMD framework is cast in a path integral form.

A study of the pair and triplet structures of the quantum hard-sphere Yukawa fluid

The pair and triplet structures of the quantum hard-sphere Yukawa fluid, evaluated for equilateral and isosceles correlations in both the r and the k spaces for a range of conditions and with a particular focus on a region where the onset of increasing number fluctuations takes place (for densities 0.4<or=rho(N) ( *)<or=0.5, along the isotherm lambda(B) ( *)=0.6), are computed via path-integral Monte Carlo simulations in the canonical ensemble and an appropriate Ornstein-Zernike framework. For a given type of correlation (instantaneous, continuous linear response, and centroids), the structural results in r space display how the correlation functions approach each other with decreasing densities as a result of the increasing fluctuations. An attempt at obtaining improved isothermal compressibilities by using a simplified grand-canonical correction to the canonical pair radial functions is also discussed in detail. The results for triplets in k space are based on triplet direct correlation function calculations and are restricted to the higher-density region of the interval studied. Complementary results report an assessment of the performances of the Kirkwood superposition and the Jackson-Feenberg convolution. Comparisons with results also obtained in this work for the bare quantum and the classical hard-sphere fluids are made, allowing one to draw conclusions on the interplay between the inclusion of Yukawa attractions and the quantum diffraction effects in hard-sphere fluids.