Engineering topics
Poirier, Bill
Publications and source records attributed to Poirier, Bill.
First-principles C band absorption spectra of SO 2 and its isotopologues
The low-energy wing of the C ~ 1 B 2 ← X ~ 1 A 1 absorption spectra for SO 2 in the ultraviolet region is computed for the 32S, 33 S, 34 S and 36 S isotopes, using the recently developed ab initio potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the two electronic states and the corresponding transition dipole surface. The state-resolved absorption spectra from various ro-vibrational states of SO 2 (X ~ 1 A 1 ) are computed. When contributions of these excited ro-vibrational states are included, the thermally averaged spectra are broadened but maintain their key characters. Excellent agreement with experimental absorption spectra is found, validating the accuracy of the PESs. Here, the isotope shifts of the absorption peaks are found to increase linearly with energy, in good agreement with experiment
Communication: The H{sub 2}@C{sub 60} inelastic neutron scattering selection rule: Expanded and explained
Recently [M. Xu et al., J. Chem. Phys. 139, 064309 (2013)], an unexpected selection rule was discovered for the title system, contradicting the previously held belief that inelastic neutron scattering (INS) is not subject to any selection rules. Moreover, the newly predicted forbidden transitions, which emerge only in the context of coupled H{sub 2} translation-rotation (TR) dynamics, have been confirmed experimentally. However, a simple physical understanding, e.g., based on group theory, has been heretofore lacking. This is provided in the present paper, in which we (1) derive the correct symmetry group for the H{sub 2}@C{sub 60} TR Hamiltonian and eigenstates; (2) complete the INS selection rule, and show that the set of forbidden transitions is actually much larger than previously believed; and (3) evaluate previous theoretical and experimental results, in light of the new findings.
Calculation of exact vibrational spectra for P{sub 2}O and CH{sub 2}NH using a phase space wavelet basis
‘‘Exact” quantum dynamics calculations of vibrational spectra are performed for two molecular systems of widely varying dimensionality (P{sub 2}O and CH{sub 2}NH), using a momentum-symmetrized Gaussian basis. This basis has been previously shown to defeat exponential scaling of computational cost with system dimensionality. The calculations were performed using the new “SWITCHBLADE” black-box code, which utilizes both dimensionally independent algorithms and massive parallelization to compute very large numbers of eigenstates for any fourth-order force field potential, in a single calculation. For both molecules considered here, many thousands of vibrationally excited states were computed, to at least an “intermediate” level of accuracy (tens of wavenumbers). Future modifications to increase the accuracy to “spectroscopic” levels, along with other potential future improvements of the new code, are also discussed.
Accurate quantum dynamics calculations using symmetrized Gaussians on a doubly dense Von Neumann lattice
In a series of earlier articles [B. Poirier, J. Theor. Comput. Chem. 2, 65 (2003); B. Poirier and A. Salam, J. Chem. Phys. 121, 1690 (2004); and ibid. 121, 1704 (2004)], a new method was introduced for performing exact quantum dynamics calculations. The method uses a 'weylet' basis set (orthogonalized Weyl-Heisenberg wavelets) combined with phase space truncation, to defeat the exponential scaling of CPU effort with system dimensionality-the first method ever able to achieve this long-standing goal. Here, we develop another such method, which uses a much more convenient basis of momentum-symmetrized Gaussians. Despite being non-orthogonal, symmetrized Gaussians are collectively local, allowing for effective phase space truncation. A dimension-independent code for computing energy eigenstates of both coupled and uncoupled systems has been created, exploiting massively parallel algorithms. Results are presented for model isotropic uncoupled harmonic oscillators and coupled anharmonic oscillators up to 27 dimensions. These are compared with the previous weylet calculations (uncoupled harmonic oscillators up to 15 dimensions), and found to be essentially just as efficient. Coupled system results are also compared to corresponding exact results obtained using a harmonic oscillator basis, and also to approximate results obtained using first-order perturbation theory up to the maximum dimensionality for which the latter may be feasibly obtained (four dimensions).
Communication: Quantum mechanics without wavefunctions
We present a self-contained formulation of spin-free non-relativistic quantum mechanics that makes no use of wavefunctions or complex amplitudes of any kind. Quantum states are represented as ensembles of real-valued quantum trajectories, obtained by extremizing an action and satisfying energy conservation. The theory applies for arbitrary configuration spaces and system dimensionalities. Various beneficial ramifications--theoretical, computational, and interpretational--are discussed.