A diabatic definition of geometric phase effects

Abstract

Electronic wave-functions in the adiabatic representation acquire nontrivial geometric phases (GPs) when corresponding potential energy surfaces undergo conical intersection (CI). These GPs have profound effects on the nuclear quantum dynamics and cannot be eliminated in the adiabatic representation without changing the physics of the system. To define dynamical effects arising from the GP presence the nuclear quantum dynamics of the CI containing system is compared with that of the system with artificially removed GP. We explore a new construction of the system with removed GP via a modification of the diabatic representation for the original CI containing system. Using an absolute value function of diabatic couplings we remove the GP while preserving adiabatic potential energy surfaces and CI. We assess GP effects in dynamics of a two-dimensional linear vibronic coupling model both for ground and excited state dynamics. Results are compared with those obtained with a conventional removal of the GP by ignoring double-valued boundary conditions of the real electronic wave-functions. Interestingly, GP effects appear similar in two approaches only for the low energy dynamics. In contrast with the conventional approach, a new approach does not have substantial GP effects in the ultra-fast excited state dynamics.