William A. Lester - Böcker

The chapters in this monograph are contributions from the Advances in Quantum Monte Carlo symposium held at Pacifichem 2010, International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies. The symposium was dedicated to celebrate the career of James B. Anderson, a notable researcher in the field.Quantum Monte Carlo provides an ab initio solution to the Schroedinger equation by performing a random walk through configuration space in imaginary time. Benchmark calculations suggest that its most commonly-used variant, "fixed-node" diffusion Monte Carlo, estimates energies with an accuracy comparable to that of high-level coupled-cluster calculations. These two methods, each having advantages and disadvantages, are complementary "gold-standards" of quantum chemistry.There are challenges facing researchers in the field, several of which are addressed in the chapters in this monograph. These include improving the accuracy and precision of quantum Monte Carlo calculations; understanding the exchange nodes and utilizing the simulated electron distribution; extending the method to large and/or experimentally-challenging systems; and developing hybrid molecular mechanics/dynamics and Monte Carlo algorithms.

This book presents the basic theory and application of the Monte Carlo method to the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. It assumes no previous knowledge of the subject, only a knowledge of molecular quantum mechanics at the first-year graduate level. A working knowledge of traditional ab initio quantum chemistry is helpful, but not essential.Some distinguishing features of this book are:

This book presents the basic theory and application of the Monte Carlo method to the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. It assumes no previous knowledge of the subject, only a knowledge of molecular quantum mechanics at the first-year graduate level. A working knowledge of traditional ab initio quantum chemistry is helpful, but not essential.Some distinguishing features of this book are:

The quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method is gaining interest as a complement to basis set ab initio methods in cases where high accuracy computation of atomic and molecular properties is desired. This volume focuses on recent advances in this area. QMC as used here refers to methods that directly solve the Schrödinger equation, for example, diffusion and Green's function Monte Carlo, as well as variational Monte Carlo. The latter is an approach to computing atomic and molecular properties by the Monte Carlo method that has fundamental similarities to basis set methods with the exception that the limitation to one-particle basis functions to facilitate integral evaluation is avoided. This feature makes possible the consideration of many-body wave functions containing explicitly interparticle distances — a capability common to all variants of QMC.

The topics discussed include recent developments in operator theory and orthogonal polynomials, coherent states and wavelet analysis, geometric methods in theoretical physics and quantum field theory, and the application of these methods of mathematical physics to problems in atomic and molecular physics as well as the world of the elementary particles and their fundamental interactions. This volume should be of interest to anyone working in a field using the mathematical methods of any of these general topics.