Interaction-Region Decoupling Through Structured Imaginary Potentials: A Framework for Scalable Time-Dependent...

Accurate quantum mechanical treatment of molecular reactions remains a longstanding challenge, especially for reactions involving deep potential wells and long-lived intermediate complexes. Here, we introduce an interaction region decoupling (IRD) strategy that incorporates structured imaginary potentials to dynamically partition the interaction region into reactant and product subspaces. The IRD framework integrates naturally with standard TDWP propagation schemes and enables the construction of region-specific basis sets, dramatically enhancing computational efficiency. Benchmark applications to the F + HD and O + OH reactions demonstrate that this approach achieves state-resolved accuracy while reducing computational cost by over 2 orders of magnitude. This strategy paves the way for routine quantum mechanical treatment of complex-forming four-atom reactions previously considered intractable.