Semiclassical Propagation: Hilbert Space vs. Wigner Representation

Abstract

A unified viewpoint on the van Vleck and Herman-Kluk propagators in Hilbert space and their recently developed counterparts in Wigner representation is presented. It is shown that the numerical protocol for the Herman-Kluk propagator, which contains the van Vleck one as a particular case, coincides in both representations. The flexibility of the Wigner version in choosing the Gaussians' width for the underlying coherent states, being not bound to minimal uncertainty, is investigated numerically on prototypical potentials. Exploiting this flexibility provides neither qualitative nor quantitative improvements. Thus, the well-established Herman-Kluk propagator in Hilbert space remains the best choice to date given the large number of semiclassical developments and applications based on it.

5 pages 2 figures, Submitted to JCP Communications

References in corpus (4)

• Semiclassical propagator of the Wigner function
• Mixed Semiclassical Initial Value Representation Time-Averaging Propagator for Spectroscopic Calculations
• Semiclassical evolution of correlations between observables
• Determination of the border between "shallow" and "deep" tunneling regions for Herman-Kluk method by asymptotic approach

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Herman-Kluk propagator is free from zero-point energy leakage
• On Computing Spectral Densities from Classical, Semiclassical and Quantum Simulations
• Semiclassical Dynamics in Wigner Phase Space I : Adiabatic Hybrid Wigner Dynamics
• Semi-Classical Discretization and Long-Time Evolution of Variable Spin Systems