Molecular Dynamics with Quantum Transitions (MDQT): A Match Made in Phase Space

Molecular dynamics (MD) is a field of study in computational chemistry concerned with describing and simulating the motion of atoms and molecules in time. Such simulations give information about time-dependent physical and chemical processes as well as provide statistical information such as diffusion coefficients, heat capacities, or time-correlation functions for a chemical system of interest. To ease computational cost, most of these MD simulations are conducted treating the system classically. However, in systems where quantum effects such as tunneling, quantum interference, zero point energy are significant such as for low temperature systems or systems involving hydrogen atoms, using fully classical MD can give inaccurate results. Molecular dynamics methods can be modified to describe select quantum effects. The methods described by Tully provide a modified molecular dynamics method to incorporate electronic transitions.