Electron-nuclear coupling in time-dependent multicomponent density functional theory

In this thesis we developed the time-dependent version of the multicomponent density functional approach to treat time-dependent electron-nuclear systems. The method enables to describe the electron-nuclear coupling fully quantum mechanically. No Born-Oppenheimer approximation is involved in the approach. The multicomponent density functional theory is formulated for an electron-nuclear system in the body-fixed coordinate frame attached to the nuclei. It allows us to describe properly the internal properties of the system.

Multicomponent density-functional theory for time-dependent systems

We derive the basic formalism of density functional theory for time-dependent electron-nuclear systems. The basic variables of this theory are the electron density in body-fixed frame coordinates and the diagonal of the nuclear N-body density matrix. The body-fixed frame transformation is carried out in order to achieve an electron density that reflects the internal symmetry of the system. We discuss the implications of this body-fixed frame transformation and establish a Runge-Gross-type theorem and derive Kohn-Sham equations for the electrons and nuclei. We illustrate the formalism by performing calculations on a one-dimensional diatomic molecule for which the many-body Schrödinger equation can be solved numerically. These benchmark results are then compared to the solution of the time-dependent Kohn-Sham equations in the Hartree approximation. Furthermore, we analyze the excitation energies obtained from the linear response formalism in the single pole approximation. We find that there is a clear need for improved functionals that go beyond the simple Hartree approximation.