Nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics with hopping, II. Role of nuclear quantum effects in atomic collisions

An extension of the nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics approach is presented to account for electron-nuclear correlations in the dynamics of atomic many-body systems. The method combines electron dynamics described within time-dependent density-functional or Hartree-Fock theory with trajectory-surface-hopping dynamics for the nuclei, allowing us to take into account explicitly a possible external laser field. As a case study, a model system of H++H collisions is considered where full quantum-mechanical calculations are available for comparison. For this benchmark system the extended surface-hopping scheme exactly reproduces the full quantum results. Future applications are briefly outlined