Symmetry Adapted Hierarchical Equations of Motion for Exact Simulations of Large Polariton Systems
Hierarchical equations of motion(HEOM) provide exact dynamics of open quantum systems coupled to harmonic baths, but their computational cost becomes prohibitive for systems with many independent local environments. In this work, we develop a symmetry-adapted HEOM formalism to significantly reduce the computational cost for the permutationally invariant Holstein-Tavis-Cummings (HTC) model. The method removes redundant information in two stages. First, all auxiliary density operators (ADOs) related only by relabeling identical molecules and their bath channels are replaced by a single canonical occupation-pattern representative. Second, molecules with the same local hierarchy occupation produce repeated matrix elements within each representative, allowing only the distinct complex variables to be propagated instead of the full (N + 1) $\times$ (N + 1) ADO matrices. The resulting matrix-free equations are evaluated using precomputed connections and molecular multiplicities. At fixed hierarchy depth L and number of bath correlation exponentials m, the number of canonical representatives becomes independent of the ensemble size for N $\geq$ L and the number of unique variables saturates for N $\geq$ L + 2. The formulation easily extends to multiple-exponential bath decompositions, arbitrary initial density operators, static disorders, and cavity loss. Our benchmarks reproduce conventional HEOM dynamics while requiring far fewer propagated variables and substantially less memory.