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

Title: Generalizing the self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo approach to finite temperature: A path for the optimization of low-energy many-body bases

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861222· OSTI ID:1127367

The self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo method for complex functions [F. A. Reboredo J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 136}, 204101 (2012)] and some ideas of the correlation function Monte Carlo approach [D. M. Ceperley and B. Bernu, J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 89}, 6316 (1988)] are blended to obtain a method for the calculation of thermodynamic properties of many-body systems at low temperatures. In order to allow the evolution in imaginary time to describe the density matrix, we remove the fixed-node restriction using complex antisymmetric trial wave functions. A statistical method is derived for the calculation of finite temperature properties of many-body systems near the ground state. In the process we also obtain a parallel algorithm that optimizes the many-body basis of a small subspace of the many-body Hilbert space. This small subspace is optimized to have maximum overlap with the one expanded by the lower energy eigenstates of a many-body Hamiltonian. We show in a model system that the Helmholtz free energy is minimized within this subspace as the iteration number increases. We show that the subspace expanded by the small basis systematically converges towards the subspace expanded by the lowest energy eigenstates. Possible applications of this method to calculate the thermodynamic properties of many-body systems near the ground state are discussed. The resulting basis can be also used to accelerate the calculation of the ground or excited states with Quantum Monte Carlo.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1127367
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 140, Issue 7; ISSN 0021-9606
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (50)

Finite-temperature electronic simulations without the Born-Oppenheimer constraint journal October 2012
Full optimization of Jastrow–Slater wave functions with application to the first-row atoms and homonuclear diatomic molecules journal May 2008
Equation of state of metallic hydrogen from coupled electron-ion Monte Carlo simulations journal February 2010
Absorption Spectrum of the Green Fluorescent Protein Chromophore: A Difficult Case for ab Initio Methods? journal July 2009
Excited state calculations using phaseless auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo: Potential energy curves of low-lying C2 singlet states journal March 2009
A diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm with very small time‐step errors journal August 1993
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations of solids journal January 2001
The “disordered local moment” picture of itinerant magnetism at finite temperatures journal November 1984
A new approach to Monte Carlo simulations in statistical physics: Wang-Landau sampling journal October 2004
Fixed‐node quantum Monte Carlo for molecules a) b) journal December 1982
Nonlocal pseudopotentials and diffusion Monte Carlo journal September 1991
Isomerization Through Conical Intersections journal May 2007
A fast and efficient algorithm for Slater determinant updates in quantum Monte Carlo simulations journal May 2009
Path Integral Monte Carlo Calculation of the Deuterium Hugoniot journal August 2000
The calculation of excited states with quantum Monte Carlo. II. Vibrational excited states journal July 1990
Electronic excitations: density-functional versus many-body Green’s-function approaches journal June 2002
Computing the energy of a water molecule using multideterminants: A simple, efficient algorithm journal December 2011
A first-principles theory of ferromagnetic phase transitions in metals journal June 1985
Monte Carlo Methods in Ab Initio Quantum Chemistry book March 1994
Fermion nodes journal June 1991
Systematic Reduction of Sign Errors in Many-Body Calculations of Atoms and Molecules journal May 2010
Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects journal November 1965
Electronic structure of metallic ferromagnets above the Curie temperature journal June 1985
Impact of electron density on the fixed-node errors in Quantum Monte Carlo of atomic systems journal March 2012
Implications of the two nodal domains conjecture for ground state fermionic wave functions journal September 2012
All-Electron Path Integral Monte Carlo Simulations of Warm Dense Matter: Application to Water and Carbon Plasmas journal March 2012
Composite-fermion antiparticle description of the hole excitation in a maximum-density droplet with a small number of electrons journal December 2005
Minimum energy pathways via quantum Monte Carlo journal February 2013
On the eigenfunctions of many-particle systems in quantum mechanics journal January 1957
Delayed rejection variational Monte Carlo journal August 2004
Fixed-phase correlation-function quantum Monte Carlo calculations for ground and excited states of helium in neutron-star magnetic fields journal March 2013
High Accuracy Molecular Heats of Formation and Reaction Barriers: Essential Role of Electron Correlation journal December 1997
Diffusion Monte Carlo: Exponential scaling of computational cost for large systems journal January 2010
New Transcorrelated Method Improving the Feasibility of Explicitly Correlated Calculations journal May 2002
Density-Functional Theory for Time-Dependent Systems journal March 1984
Inhomogeneous Electron Gas journal November 1964
Many-body calculations of low-energy eigenstates in magnetic and periodic systems with self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo: Steps beyond the fixed phase journal May 2012
Ground State of the Electron Gas by a Stochastic Method journal August 1980
Path integrals in the theory of condensed helium journal April 1995
Density-density functionals and effective potentials in many-body electronic structure calculations journal June 2008
Approaching chemical accuracy with quantum Monte Carlo journal March 2012
Pfaffian pairing and backflow wavefunctions for electronic structure quantum Monte Carlo methods journal March 2008
Towards an exact description of electronic wavefunctions in real solids journal December 2012
Effect of lattice vibrations on magnetic phase transition in bcc iron journal December 2012
Quantum Monte Carlo and Related Approaches journal December 2011
Thermal Properties of the Inhomogeneous Electron Gas journal March 1965
Order- N Multiple Scattering Approach to Electronic Structure Calculations journal October 1995
Quantum chemistry by random walk: H4 square journal January 1979
Inhomogeneous backflow transformations in quantum Monte Carlo calculations journal December 2006
Core Structure of a Vortex in Superfluid He 4 journal December 1995