Time-dependent density functional theory for many-electron systems interacting with cavity photons.

TLDR: It is shown that the electron-photon wave function is a unique functional of the electronic (current) density and the expectation values of photonic coordinates that naturally leads to time-dependent density functional theory for systems coupled to the Caldeira-Leggett bath.

Abstract: Time-dependent (current) density functional theory for many-electron systems strongly coupled to quantized electromagnetic modes of a microcavity is proposed. It is shown that the electron-photon wave function is a unique functional of the electronic (current) density and the expectation values of photonic coordinates. The Kohn-Sham system is constructed, which allows us to calculate the above basic variables by solving self-consistent equations for noninteracting particles. We suggest possible approximations for the exchange-correlation potentials and discuss implications of this approach for the theory of open quantum systems. In particular we show that it naturally leads to time-dependent density functional theory for systems coupled to the Caldeira-Leggett bath.