Exact-factorization-based surface-hopping without velocity adjustment

Abstract

While surface-hopping has emerged as a powerful method to simulate non-adiabatic dynamics in large molecules, the ad hoc nature of the necessary velocity adjustments and decoherence corrections in the algorithm somewhat reduces its reliability. Here we propose a new scheme that eliminates these aspects, by combining the nuclear equation from the quantum trajectory surface-hopping approach with the electronic equation derived from the exact factorization approach. The resulting method, denoted QTSH-XF, places surface-hopping on a firmer ground and is shown to successfully capture dynamics in Tully models and in a linear vibronic coupling model of the photo-excited uracil cation.