Ab initio path integral ring polymer molecular dynamics: Vibrational spectra of molecules

The path integral ring polymer molecular dynamics method is combined with ‘on-the-fly’ ab initio electronic structure calculations and applied to vibrational spectra of small molecules, LiH and H2O, at the room temperature. The results are compared with those of the numerically exact solution and ab initio path integral centroid molecular dynamics calculation. The peak positions in the calculated spectra are found to be reasonable, showing the red-shift due to potential anharmonicity. This unification enables the investigation of real-time quantum dynamics of chemically complex molecular systems on the ab initio Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface.