A Review of Wave Packet Molecular Dynamics

Abstract

Warm dense matter systems created in the laboratory are highly dynamical. In such cases electron dynamics is often needed to accurately simulate the evolution and properties of the system. Large systems force one to make simple approximations enabling computationally feasibility. Wave packet molecular dynamics (WPMD) provides a simple framework for simulating time-dependent quantum plasmas. Here, this method is reviewed. The different variants of WPMD are shown and compared and their validity is discussed.