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Ehrenfest+R dynamics. I. A mixed quantum-classical electrodynamics simulation of spontaneous emission
Hsing-Ta Chen1, Tao E Li1, Maxim Sukharev2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Abstract:
The dynamics of an electronic system interacting with an electromagnetic field is investigated within mixed quantum-classical theory. Beyond the classical path approximation (where we ignore all feedback from the electronic system on the photon field), we consider all electron-photon interactions explicitly according to Ehrenfest (i.e., mean-field) dynamics and a set of coupled Maxwell-Liouville equations. Because Ehrenfest dynamics cannot capture certain quantum features of the photon field correctly, we propose a new Ehrenfest+R method that can recover (by construction) spontaneous emission while also distinguishing between electromagnetic fluctuations and coherent emission.
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