Time-resolved spectroscopy in time-dependent density functional theory: an exact condition.

A fundamental property of a quantum system driven by an external field is that when the field is turned off the positions of its response frequencies are independent of the time at which the field is turned off. We show that this leads to an exact condition for the exchange-correlation potential of time-dependent density functional theory. The Kohn-Sham potential typically continues to evolve after the field is turned off, which leads to time dependence in the response frequencies of the Kohn-Sham response function. The exchange-correlation kernel must cancel out this time dependence. The condition is typically violated by approximations currently in use, as we demonstrate by several examples, which has severe consequences for their predictions of time-resolved spectroscopy.