title: Understanding the Surface Hopping View of Electronic Transitions and Decoherence.
abstract: We present a current, up-to-date review of the surface hopping methodology for solving nonadiabatic problems, 25 years after Tully published the fewest switches surface hopping algorithm. After reviewing the original motivation for and failures of the algorithm, we give a detailed examination of modern advances, focusing on both theoretical and practical issues. We highlight how one can partially derive surface hopping from the Schrödinger equation in the adiabatic basis, how one can change basis within the surface hopping algorithm, and how one should understand and apply the notions of decoherence and wavepacket bifurcation. The question of time reversibility and detailed balance is also examined at length. Recent applications to photoexcited conjugated polymers are discussed briefly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Subotnik
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Amber
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petit
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; email: subotnik@sas.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bellonzi
keywords: electron transfer; energy transfer; measurement; nonadiabatic dynamics