Accelerated "on-the-fly" coupled-cluster path-integral molecular dynamics: Impact of nuclear quantum effects on an asymmetric proton

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Hauptverfasser: Spura, Thomas, Elgabarty, Hossam, Kühne, Thomas D.
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Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Spura, Thomas
Elgabarty, Hossam
Kühne, Thomas D.
author_facet Spura, Thomas
Elgabarty, Hossam
Kühne, Thomas D.
contents We present an accelerated ``on-the-fly'' coupled-cluster path-integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) method for finite-temperature simulations in which electron correlation and nuclear quantum effects are treated simultaneously. The approach is based on our quantum ring-polymer contraction (qRPC) technique, in which the inexpensive Hartree-Fock potential is evaluated on the full ring-polymer, while the expensive coupled-cluster correction is evaluated on the centroid only. This qRPC decomposition is combined with a second-generation Car-Parrinello-like dynamics of the Hartree-Fock reference and a basis-consistent extrapolation of the coupled-cluster and de-excitation amplitudes. The combination of all three acceleration layers is essential for making correlated PIMD calculations feasible. We apply the method to a proton shared by water and formaldehyde. Relative to classical nuclei, nuclear quantum effects broaden covalent X--H bond-length distributions, reduce the bias of the shared proton toward formaldehyde, and shift the mean proton-transfer coordinate from 0.206 to 0.135A. The probability of finding the proton closer to formaldehyde decreases from 81.7$\%$ to 61.1$\%$. The corresponding nuclear magnetic shielding tensors show that electron correlation and nuclear quantum effects are of comparable magnitude and can act in opposite directions. These results demonstrate that predictive simulations of asymmetric hydrogen bonds require a simultaneous treatment of correlated electronic structure and nuclear quantum fluctuations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_19858
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Accelerated "on-the-fly" coupled-cluster path-integral molecular dynamics: Impact of nuclear quantum effects on an asymmetric proton
Spura, Thomas
Elgabarty, Hossam
Kühne, Thomas D.
Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Atomic and Molecular Clusters
Computational Physics
We present an accelerated ``on-the-fly'' coupled-cluster path-integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) method for finite-temperature simulations in which electron correlation and nuclear quantum effects are treated simultaneously. The approach is based on our quantum ring-polymer contraction (qRPC) technique, in which the inexpensive Hartree-Fock potential is evaluated on the full ring-polymer, while the expensive coupled-cluster correction is evaluated on the centroid only. This qRPC decomposition is combined with a second-generation Car-Parrinello-like dynamics of the Hartree-Fock reference and a basis-consistent extrapolation of the coupled-cluster and de-excitation amplitudes. The combination of all three acceleration layers is essential for making correlated PIMD calculations feasible. We apply the method to a proton shared by water and formaldehyde. Relative to classical nuclei, nuclear quantum effects broaden covalent X--H bond-length distributions, reduce the bias of the shared proton toward formaldehyde, and shift the mean proton-transfer coordinate from 0.206 to 0.135A. The probability of finding the proton closer to formaldehyde decreases from 81.7$\%$ to 61.1$\%$. The corresponding nuclear magnetic shielding tensors show that electron correlation and nuclear quantum effects are of comparable magnitude and can act in opposite directions. These results demonstrate that predictive simulations of asymmetric hydrogen bonds require a simultaneous treatment of correlated electronic structure and nuclear quantum fluctuations.
title Accelerated "on-the-fly" coupled-cluster path-integral molecular dynamics: Impact of nuclear quantum effects on an asymmetric proton
topic Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Atomic and Molecular Clusters
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.19858