Diffusion Monte Carlo

Abstract: Quantum Monte Carlo simulations, while being efficient for bosons, suffer from the "negative sign problem" when applied to fermions--causing an exponential increase of the computing time with the number of particles. A polynomial time solution to the sign problem is highly desired since it would provide an unbiased and numerically exact method to simulate correlated quantum systems. Here we show that such a solution is almost certainly unattainable by proving that the sign problem is nondeterministic polynomial (NP) hard, implying that a generic solution of the sign problem would also solve all problems in the complexity class NP in polynomial time.

Abstract: We present a wave-function approach to the study of the evolution of a small system when it is coupled to a large reservoir. Fluctuations and dissipation originate in this approach from quantum jumps that occur randomly during the time evolution of the system. This approach can be applied to a wide class of relaxation operators in the Markovian regime, and it is equivalent to the standard master-equation approach. For systems with a number of states N much larger than unity this Monte Carlo wave-function approach can be less expensive in terms of calculation time than the master-equation treatment. Indeed, a wave function involves only N components, whereas a density matrix is described by N2 terms. We evaluate the gain in computing time that may be expected from such a formalism, and we discuss its applicability to several examples, with particular emphasis on a quantum description of laser cooling.

Abstract: The ground‐state energies of H2, LiH, Li2, and H2O are calculated by a fixed‐node quantum Monte Carlo method, which is presented in detail. For each molecule, relatively simple trial wave functions ΨT are chosen. Each ΨT consists of a single Slater determinant of molecular orbitals multiplied by a product of pair‐correlation (Jastrow) functions. These wave functions are used as importance functions in a stochastic approach that solves the Schrodinger equation by treating it as a diffusion equation. In this approach, ΨT serves as a ‘‘guiding function’’ for a random walk of the electrons through configuration space. In the fixed‐node approximation used here, the diffusion process is confined to connected regions of space, bounded by the nodes (zeros) of ΨT. This approximation simplifies the treatment of Fermi statistics, since within each region an electronic probability amplitude is obtained which does not change sign. Within these approximate boundaries, however, the Fermi problem is solved exactly. The e...

Abstract: A simple random‐walk method for obtaining ab initio solutions of the Schrodinger equation is examined in its application to the case of the molecular ion H+3 in the equilateral triangle configuration with side length R=1.66 bohr. The method, which is based on the similarity of the Schrodinger equation and the diffusion equation, involves the random movement of imaginary particles (psips) in electron configuration space subject to a variable chance of multiplication or disappearance. The computation requirements for high accuracy in determining energies of H+3 are greater than those of existing LCAO–MO–SCF–CI methods. For more complex molecular systems the method may be competitive.