Ring-polymer molecular dynamics rate-theory in the deep-tunneling regime: Connection with semiclassical instanton theory

We demonstrate that the ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) method is equivalent to an automated and approximate implementation of the "Im F" version of semiclassical instanton theory when used to calculate reaction rates in the deep-tunneling regime. This explains why the RPMD method is often reliable in this regime and also shows how it can be systematically improved. The geometry of the beads at the transition state on the ring-polymer potential surface describes a finite-difference approximation to the "instanton" trajectory (a periodic orbit in imaginary time beta variant Planck's over 2pi on the inverted potential surface). The deep-tunneling RPMD rate is an approximation to the rate obtained by applying classical transition-state theory (TST) in ring-polymer phase-space using the optimal dividing surface; this TST rate is in turn an approximation to a free-energy version of the Im F instanton rate. The optimal dividing surface is in general a function of several modes of the ring polymer, which explains why centroid-based quantum-TSTs break down at low temperatures for asymmetric reaction barriers. Numerical tests on one-dimensional models show that the RPMD rate tends to overestimate deep-tunneling rates for asymmetric barriers and underestimate them for symmetric barriers, and we explain that this is likely to be a general trend. The ability of the RPMD method to give a dividing-surface-independent rate in the deep-tunneling regime is shown to be a consequence of setting the bead-masses equal to the physical mass.