arXiv subjects

Barry Y. Li

Publications and source records attributed to Barry Y. Li.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Real-Time Approach to the Dynamical Bethe-Salpeter Equation for Finite Systems

We present a real-time linear-response approach to solving the dynamical Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE). The polarization part of the screened interaction is obtained from time-dependent Hartree propagation of the one-particle density matrix within an orbital basis-set representation. The frequency convolution defining the dynamical kernel is evaluated as a product in time, avoiding numerical integration and storage of the full screened Coulomb operator. The resulting nonlinear eigenvalue problem is then solved directly, going beyond the static screening approximation with full-frequency dependence in the screened interaction. While the deterministic scaling remains $\mathcal{O}(N^6)$, the time propagation formulation is readily compatible with grid-based stochastic sampling methods, which will open the possibility for dynamical BSE calculations of very large systems.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

Environment-Induced Exciton Renormalization in the Photosystem II Reaction Center

Protein electrostatics tune excitation energies in the Photosystem II reaction center (PSII-RC), yet a fully quantum-mechanical many-body description of how the surrounding protein environment renormalizes excitons has remained computationally inaccessible. The Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) within many-body perturbation theory accurately describes excitonic physics through an explicit electron-hole interaction, but is prohibitively expensive for systems containing thousands of valence electrons. Here, we show that for sufficiently large systems the BSE becomes simpler to solve when treated with modern stochastic sampling techniques, as atomistic interactions self-average. In this regime, the effective electron-hole interaction mediated by the environment is governed by collective $k$-dependent polarization. These insights enable an ab initio study of the PSII-RC in which all six chlorins forming the hexameric dye core are treated explicitly together with a roughly seven Angstrom local protein environment. We directly compare the low-lying optical excitations of the isolated chromophore hexamer (1276 valence electrons) and the protein-dye cluster (3238 valence electrons). For $Q_y$ excitations near 680 nm, inclusion of the protein environment induces polarization-dependent energy shifts, redistributes spectral weight, and alters exciton delocalization and pigment character. Lateral and transverse asymmetries in the low-lying excited states are captured at the BSE level of theory. These results establish that we now have the tools for many-body calculations of biological nanostructures.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

StochasticGW-GPU: rapid quasi-particle energies for molecules beyond 10000 atoms

$\mathtt{StochasticGW}$ is a code for computing accurate Quasi-Particle (QP) energies of molecules and material systems in the GW approximation. $\mathtt{StochasticGW}$ utilizes the stochastic Resolution of the Identity (sROI) technique to enable a massively-parallel implementation with computational costs that scale semi-linearly with system size, allowing the method to access systems with tens of thousands of electrons. We introduce a new implementation, $\mathtt{StochasticGW-GPU}$, for which the main bottleneck steps have been ported to GPUs and which gives substantial performance improvements over previous versions of the code. We showcase the new code by computing band gaps of hydrogenated silicon clusters ($\textrm{S}\textrm{i}_{\textrm{x}}\textrm{H}_{\textrm{y}}$) containing up to 10001 atoms and 35144 electrons, and we obtain individual QP energies with a statistical precision of better than $\pm0.03$ eV with times-to-solution on the order of minutes.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Nonadiabatic derivative couplings through multiple Franck-Condon modes dictate the energy gap law for near and short-wave infrared dye molecules

Near infrared (NIR, 700 - 1,000 nm) and short-wave infrared (SWIR, 1,000 - 2,000 nm) dye molecules exhibit significant nonradiative decay rates from the first singlet excited state to the ground state. While these trends can be empirically explained by a simple energy gap law, detailed mechanisms of the nearly universal behavior have remained unsettled for many cases. Theoretical and experimental results for two representative NIR/SWIR dye molecules reported here clarify the key mechanism for the observed energy gap law behavior. It is shown that the first derivative nonadiabatic coupling terms serve as major coupling pathways for nonadiabatic decay processes from the first excited singlet state to the ground state for these NIR and SWIR dye molecules and that vibrational modes other than the highest frequency ones also make significant contributions to the rate. This assessment is corroborated by further theoretical comparison with possible alternative mechanisms of intersystem crossing to triplet states and also by comparison with experimental data for deuterated molecules.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Efficient plane-wave approach to generalized Kohn-Sham density-functional theory of solids with mixed deterministic/stochastic exchange

An efficient mixed deterministic/sparse-stochastic plane-wave approach is developed for bandstructure calculations of large supercell periodic generalized-Kohn-Sham density functional theory, for any hybrid-exchange density functional. The method works for very large elementary cells and supercells, and we benchmark it on covalently bonded solids and molecular crystals with nonbonded interactions, for supercells of up to 33,000 atoms. Memory and CPU requirements scale with supercell size quasi-linearly.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Mixed Planewave and Localized Orbital Basis for Sparse-Stochastic Hybrid TDDFT

We present a mixed basis-set approach to obtain optical absorption spectra within a generalized Kohn-Sham time-dependent density functional theory framework. All occupied valence molecular orbitals (MOs) are expanded in a plane-wave (PW) basis, while unoccupied MOs are derived primarily from localized atomic basis functions. The method accelerates spectral convergence when compared to fully PW-based simulations, with a $2-3$ fold reduction in the number of unoccupied MOs entering the Casida equation. The mixed-basis is placed on a common real-space grid, enabling our previously developed deterministic/sparse-stochastic evaluation of the exact exchange operator (J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2023, 19, 9239-9247). This chemically intuitive and computationally efficient approach is validated across various molecular systems, including $π$-conjugated polymethine dyes, aromatic hydrocarbons, and a chlorophyll monomer.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2025

Parameterized Attenuated Exchange for Generalized TDHF@$v_W$ Applications

Building upon our previously developed time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF)@$v_W$ method, based on many-body perturbation theory and specifically the Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE), we introduce a parameterization scheme for the attenuated exchange kernel, $v_W(|r - r'|)$. In the original method, $v_W$ was determined individually for each system via an efficient stochastic short-time TD Hartree propagation for the screened Coulomb interaction, $W(r,r')$. The new parameterization leverages photochemical similarities in exciton binding energies (or exchange interaction attenuation) among molecules with comparable static dielectric responses. We parameterize the inverse dielectric function using a low-order polynomial with error function apodization, calibrated on a few representative molecules, each with its own $v_W$. Using only 7 parameters, the parameterized $v_W$ is fully grid-independent and broadly applicable within a family of molecules. This enables TDHF@$v_W$ that retains BSE-level accuracy, achieving a mean absolute error of $\sim0.1$ eV compared to experimental optical gaps and representing a five- to ten-fold improvement over conventional TD density functional theory or TDHF while reducing the cost to that of standard TDHF.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2024

No more gap-shifting: Stochastic many-body-theory based TDHF for accurate theory of polymethine cyanine dyes

We introduce an individually fitted screened-exchange interaction for the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) method and show that it resolves the missing binding energies in polymethine organic dye molecules compared to time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The interaction kernel, which can be thought as a dielectric function, is generated by stochastic fitting to the screened-Coulomb interaction of many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), specific to each system. We test our method on the flavylium (Flav) and indocyanine green (ICG) dye families with a modifiable length of the polymethine bridge, leading to excitations ranging from the visible to short-wave infrared (SWIR). Our approach validates earlier observations on the importance of inclusion of medium range exchange for the exciton binding energy. Our resulting method, TDHF@$v_W$, also achieves a mean absolute error on par with MBPT at a computational cost on par with local-functional TDDFT.

physics.chem-ph↗