Detailed Complementary Consistency: Wave Function Tells Particle How to Hop, Particle Tells Wave Function How to Collapse

In mixed quantum-classical dynamics, the time evolution of the quantum subsystem can involve both wave function and particle-like descriptions, which may yield inconsistent results for the expectation value of the same physical quantity. In this study, we propose a novel detailed complementary consistency (DCC) method, which achieves fully consistent results based only on the principle of internal consistency in nonadiabatic dynamics. Namely, wave function tells particle how to hop along each trajectory, while particle tells wave function how to collapse based on the occupation of active states. As benchmarked in a diverse array of representative models, DCC not only gives identical populations based on both wave functions and active states, but also closely and systematically reproduces the exact quantum dynamics. Due to the high performance, our new DCC method provides a promising approach toward more consistent mixed quantum-classical description of nonadiabatic dynamics with much better reliability and efficiency for general applications.