skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Quantum Monte Carlo Methods for Astrophysical Applications

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Physics

In recent years, new astrophysical observations have provided a wealth of exciting input for nuclear physics. For example, the observations of two-solar-mass neutron stars put strong constraints on possible phase transitions to exotic phases in strongly interacting matter at high densities. Furthermore, the recent observation of a neutron-star merger in both the electromagnetic spectrum and gravitational waves has provided compelling evidence that neutron-star mergers are an important site for the production of extremely neutron-rich nuclei within the r-process. In the coming years, an abundance of new observations is expected, which will continue to provide crucial constraints on the nuclear physics of these events. To reliably analyze such astrophysical observations and extract information on nuclear physics, it is very important that a consistent approach to nuclear systems is used. Such an approach consists of a precise and accurate method to solve the nuclear many-body problem in nuclei and nuclear matter, combined with modern nuclear Hamiltonians that allow to estimate the theoretical uncertainties. Quantum Monte Carlo methods are ideally suited for such an approach and have been successfully used to describe atomic nuclei and nuclear matter. In this contribution, I will present a detailed description of Quantum Monte Carlo methods focusing on the application of these methods to astrophysical problems. In particular, I will discuss how to use Quantum Monte Carlo methods to describe nuclear matter of relevance to the physics of neutron stars.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1659211
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-32577; TRN: US2203409
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Physics, Vol. 8; ISSN 2296-424X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (110)

Tidal Deformabilities and Radii of Neutron Stars from the Observation of GW170817 journal August 2018
Spectrum of shear modes in the neutron-star crust: Estimating the nuclear-physics uncertainties journal January 2017
Uncertainties in constraining low-energy constants from 3H $ \beta$β decay journal August 2017
Isospin asymmetry in nuclei and neutron stars journal June 2005
Equation of state of nuclear and neutron matter at third-order in perturbation theory from chiral effective field theory journal March 2017
Local chiral effective field theory interactions and quantum Monte Carlo applications journal November 2014
Masses, Radii, and the Equation of State of Neutron Stars journal September 2016
Properties of trapped neutrons interacting with realistic nuclear Hamiltonians journal May 2013
Constraining the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars from Multi-messenger Observations of GW170817 journal November 2017
Neutron Skins and Neutron Stars in the Multimessenger Era journal April 2018
Gravitational-Wave Constraints on the Neutron-Star-Matter Equation of State journal April 2018
Constraints on Neutron Star Radii Based on Chiral Effective Field Theory Interactions journal October 2010
Constraining the Speed of Sound inside Neutron Stars with Chiral Effective Field Theory Interactions and Observations journal June 2018
A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation journal December 2019
Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source journal February 1968
Green’s function Monte Carlo study of light nuclei journal November 1987
Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of the equation of state of neutron matter journal May 2009
The impact of individual nuclear properties on r -process nucleosynthesis journal January 2016
PSR J0030+0451 Mass and Radius from NICER Data and Implications for the Properties of Neutron Star Matter journal December 2019
Evidence for a new nuclear ‘magic number’ from the level structure of 54Ca journal October 2013
Can Ab Initio Theory Explain the Phenomenon of Parity Inversion in Be 11 ? journal December 2016
Properties of Nuclei up to A = 16 using Local Chiral Interactions journal March 2018
Fourth Test of General Relativity journal December 1964
Nuclear thermodynamics from chiral low-momentum interactions journal June 2014
Minimally nonlocal nucleon-nucleon potentials with chiral two-pion exchange including Δ resonances journal February 2015
A quantum Monte Carlo method for nucleon systems journal January 1999
Nuclear forces from chiral lagrangians journal November 1990
Ab initio and phenomenological studies of the static response of neutron matter journal April 2017
Color superconductivity in dense quark matter journal November 2008
Spin response and neutrino mean free path in neutron matter journal February 2020
Modern theory of nuclear forces journal December 2009
Quantum Monte Carlo Methods in Nuclear Physics: Recent Advances journal October 2019
Nuclear-matter equation of state with consistent two- and three-body perturbative chiral interactions journal April 2014
A General-relativistic Determination of the Threshold Mass to Prompt Collapse in Binary Neutron Star Mergers journal February 2019
Relativistic tidal properties of neutron stars journal October 2009
The Nanograv Nine-Year data set: mass and Geometric Measurements of Binary Millisecond Pulsars journal December 2016
Properties of the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817 journal January 2019
An Eccentric Binary Millisecond Pulsar in the Galactic Plane journal June 2008
Hyperon Puzzle: Hints from Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations journal March 2015
Equation of state of nucleon matter and neutron star structure journal September 1998
Improved chiral nucleon-nucleon potential up to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order journal May 2015
The Nuclear Equation of State and Neutron Star Masses journal November 2012
Neutron-star Radius Constraints from GW170817 and Future Detections journal November 2017
Self-consistent Green's functions formalism with three-body interactions journal November 2013
Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger journal October 2017
A generalized equation of state for hot, dense matter journal December 1991
A two-solar-mass neutron star measured using Shapiro delay journal October 2010
Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations of A 6 Nuclei journal May 1995
Benchmark calculations of pure neutron matter with realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions journal April 2020
Constraining neutron-star tidal Love numbers with gravitational-wave detectors journal January 2008
Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations with Chiral Effective Field Theory Interactions journal July 2013
Large-cutoff behavior of local chiral effective field theory interactions journal August 2018
Static Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations for Spheres of Fluid journal February 1939
Regulator artifacts in uniform matter for chiral interactions journal September 2016
On the convergence of exponential operators—the Zassenhaus formula, BCH formula and systematic approximants journal October 1977
Structure of Matter below Nuclear Saturation Density journal June 1983
New Constraints on Radii and Tidal Deformabilities of Neutron Stars from GW170817 journal June 2018
Equation of state sensitivities when inferring neutron star and dense matter properties journal March 2019
Accurate nucleon-nucleon potential with charge-independence breaking journal January 1995
Neutron Star Tidal Deformabilities Constrained by Nuclear Theory and Experiment journal August 2018
The limits of the nuclear landscape journal June 2012
A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary journal April 2013
Di-neutrons in neutron matter within a Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach journal September 2016
Prompt Merger Collapse and the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars journal September 2013
Quantum chemistry by random walk. H 2 P , H + 3 D 3 h 1 A1 , H 2 3 Σ + u , H 4 1 Σ + g , Be 1 S journal November 1976
Ground and excited states of doubly open-shell nuclei from ab initio valence-space Hamiltonians journal May 2016
GW170817: Measurements of Neutron Star Radii and Equation of State journal October 2018
Local Nucleon-Nucleon and Three-Nucleon Interactions Within Chiral Effective Field Theory journal January 2020
The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs journal July 1931
Symmetric nuclear matter with chiral three-nucleon forces in the self-consistent Green's functions approach journal October 2013
Light-Nuclei Spectra from Chiral Dynamics journal February 2018
Evolution of Nuclear Spectra with Nuclear Forces journal October 2002
Realistic models of pion-exchange three-nucleon interactions journal June 2001
Neutron Matter from Low to High Density journal October 2015
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei with local chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions journal November 2017
Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical β-decay rates resolved from first principles journal March 2019
Analyzing the Fierz rearrangement freedom for local chiral two-nucleon potentials journal November 2017
Local chiral potentials with Δ -intermediate states and the structure of light nuclei journal November 2016
Weinberg eigenvalues for chiral nucleon-nucleon interactions journal November 2017
Mass Limits For Black Hole Formation journal September 1999
Effective chiral lagrangians for nucleon-pion interactions and nuclear forces journal September 1991
Equation of State and Neutron star Properties Constrained by Nuclear Physics and Observation journal July 2013
Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A journal October 2017
Auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo calculations of light and medium-mass nuclei with local chiral interactions journal April 2018
Bounds on the speed of sound in dense matter, and neutron star structure journal April 2017
How Robust is the N = 34 Subshell Closure? First Spectroscopy of Ar 52 journal February 2019
On Massive Neutron Cores journal February 1939
Three-body interactions among nucleons and pions journal November 1992
Evidence for an Unusual Source of High Radio Brightness Temperature in the Crab Nebula journal July 1965
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral journal October 2017
Coupled-cluster calculations of nucleonic matter journal January 2014
Chiral Three-Nucleon Interactions in Light Nuclei, Neutron- α Scattering, and Neutron Matter journal February 2016
Confronting gravitational-wave observations with modern nuclear physics constraints journal June 2019
Ab initio alpha–alpha scattering journal December 2015
Quantum Monte Carlo Method using Phase-Free Random Walks with Slater Determinants journal April 2003
Neutron and weak-charge distributions of the 48Ca nucleus journal November 2015
Relativistic Shapiro delay measurements of an extremely massive millisecond pulsar journal September 2019
Constraint on the maximum mass of neutron stars using GW170817 event journal July 2019
Constrained path Monte Carlo method for fermion ground states journal March 1997
Cold Neutrons Trapped in External Fields journal January 2011
Chiral Interactions up to Next-to-Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order and Nuclear Saturation journal January 2019
Remarks on Super-Novae and Cosmic Rays journal July 1934
Stringent constraints on neutron-star radii from multimessenger observations and nuclear theory journal March 2020
From the microscopic to the macroscopic world: from nucleons to neutron stars journal August 2019
On the nature and evolution of the unique binary pulsar J1903+0327: PSR J1903+0327 journal March 2011
Neutron matter at zero temperature with an auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo method journal August 2003
Possible Existence of a Neutron journal February 1932
Critical examination of constraints on the equation of state of dense matter obtained from GW170817 journal October 2018
Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of neutron matter with chiral three-body forces journal February 2016
Quantum Monte Carlo methods for nuclear physics journal September 2015

Similar Records

Nuclear Physics Multimessenger Astrophysics Constraints on the Neutron Star Equation of State: Adding NICER’s PSR J0740+6620 Measurement
Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2021 · The Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1659211

Hot and dense matter equation of state probability distributions for astrophysical simulations
Journal Article · Mon Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Physical Review. C · OSTI ID:1659211

What can neutron stars reveal about the equation of state of dense matter?
Journal Article · Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · EPJ Web of Conferences (Online) · OSTI ID:1659211