Charge-Transfer in Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory: Insights from the Asymmetric Hubbard Dimer

Abstract: We show that an asymmetric two-fermion two-site Hubbard model illustrates the essential features of long-range charge-transfer dynamics in a real-space molecule. We apply a resonant field that transfers one fermion from one site to the other. Via constrained search we find the exact ground-state exchange-correlation functional, and use it to propagate the Kohn-Sham system, giving the first "adiabatically-exact" calculation of time-resolved charge-transfer. This propagation fails to properly transfer charge. We analyze why by comparing the exact and adiabatically-exact potentials and discuss the role of the derivative discontinuity. The implication for real-space molecules is that even the best possible adiabatic approximation, despite capturing non-local step features relevant to dissociation and charge-transfer excitations, cannot capture fully time-resolved charge-transfer dynamics.