Abstract We present a practical analysis of the fermion sign problem in fermionic path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations in the grand-canonical ensemble (GCE). As a representative model system, we consider electrons in a 2D harmonic trap. We find that the sign problem in the GCE is even more severe than in the canonical ensemble at the same conditions, which, in general, makes the latter the preferred option. Despite these difficulties, we show that fermionic PIMC simulations in the GCE are still feasible in many cases, which potentially gives access to important quantities like the compressibility or the Matsubara Greens function. This has important implications for contemporary fields of research such as warm dense matter, ultracold atoms, and electrons in quantum dots.
Abstract We present a practical analysis of the fermion sign problem in fermionic path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations in the grand-canonical ensemble (GCE). As a representative model system, we consider electrons in a 2D harmonic trap. We find that the sign problem in the GCE is even more severe than in the canonical ensemble at the same conditions, which, in general, makes the latter the preferred option. Despite these difficulties, we show that fermionic PIMC simulations in the GCE are still feasible in many cases, which potentially gives access to important quantities like the compressibility or the Matsubara Greens function. This has important implications for contemporary fields of research such as warm dense matter, ultracold atoms, and electrons in quantum dots.
The ab initio thermodynamic simulation of correlated Fermi systems is of central importance for many applications, such as warm dense matter, electrons in quantum dots, and ultracold atoms. Unfortunately, path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations of fermions are severely restricted by the notorious fermion sign problem (FSP). In this paper, we present a hands-on discussion of the FSP and investigate in detail its manifestation with respect to temperature, system size, interaction-strength and -type, and the dimensionality of the system. Moreover, we analyze the probability distribution of fermionic expectation values, which can be non-Gaussian and fat-tailed when the FSP is severe. As a practical application, we consider electrons and dipolar atoms in a harmonic confinement, and the uniform electron gas in the warm dense matter regime. In addition, we provide extensive PIMC data, which can be used as a reference for the development of new methods and as a benchmark for approximations.
ABSTRACT Ab initio path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations constitute the gold standard for the estimation of a broad range of equilibrium properties of a host of interacting quantum many‐body systems spanning a broad range of conditions from ultracold atoms to warm dense quantum plasmas. A key practical limitation is given by the notorious fermion sign problem, which manifests as an exponential computational bottleneck with respect to system size and inverse temperature. In practice, the sign problem is particularly severe in the grand‐canonical ensemble, where the bosonic and fermionic configuration spaces differ not only with respect to the symmetry of the thermal density matrix but, crucially, also with respect to the particle number distribution for a given chemical potential μ [T. Dornheim, J. Phys. A 54 , 335001 (2021)]. Here, we present a simple reweighting scheme that basically allows one to retain access to grand‐canonical expectation values at the cost of fermionic PIMC simulations in the canonical ensemble for the largest significant particle number in the fermionic sector. As a practical example, we consider the warm dense electron gas, which has attracted considerable recent attention due to its relevance, e.g., for the modeling of compact astrophysical objects and inertial fusion energy applications.
Accurate thermodynamic simulations of correlated fermions using path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methods are of paramount importance for many applications such as the description of ultracold atoms, electrons in quantum dots, and warm-dense matter. The main obstacle is the fermion sign problem (FSP), which leads to an exponential increase in computation time both with an increase in the system size and with a decrease in the temperature. Very recently, Hirshberg et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 152, 171102 (2020)] have proposed to alleviate the FSP based on the Bogoliubov inequality. In the present work, we extend this approach by adding a parameter that controls the perturbation, allowing for an extrapolation to the exact result. In this way, we can also use thermodynamic integration to obtain an improved estimate of the fermionic energy. As a test system, we choose electrons in 2D and 3D quantum dots and find in some cases a speed-up exceeding 106, as compared to standard PIMC, while retaining a relative accuracy of ∼0.1%. Our approach is quite general and can readily be adapted to other simulation methods.
The ab initio path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method is one of the most successful methods in statistical physics, quantum chemistry and related fields, but its application to quantum degenerate Fermi systems is severely hampered by an exponential computational bottleneck: the notorious fermion sign problem. Very recently, Xiong and Xiong [J. Chem. Phys. 157, 094112 (2022)] have suggested to partially circumvent the sign problem by carrying out simulations of fictitious systems guided by an interpolating continuous variable ξ ∈ [-1, 1], with the physical Fermi- and Bose-statistics corresponding to ξ = -1 and ξ = 1. It has been proposed that information about the fermionic limit might be obtained by calculations within the bosonic sector ξ > 0 combined with an extrapolation throughout the fermionic sector ξ < 0, essentially bypassing the sign problem. Here, we show how the inclusion of the artificial parameter ξ can be interpreted as an effective penalty on the formation of permutation cycles in the PIMC simulation. We demonstrate that the proposed extrapolation method breaks down for moderate to high quantum degeneracy. Instead, the method constitutes a valuable tool for the description of large Fermi-systems of weak quantum degeneracy. This is demonstrated for electrons in a 2D harmonic trap and for the uniform electron gas (UEG), where we find excellent agreement (∼0.5%) with exact configuration PIMC results in the high-density regime while attaining a speed-up exceeding 11 orders of magnitude. Finally, we extend the idea beyond the energy and analyze the radial density distribution (2D trap), as well as the static structure factor and imaginary-time density-density correlation function (UEG).
We present a method for performing path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) simulations for fermions and address its sign problem. PIMD simulations are widely used for studying many-body quantum systems at thermal equilibrium. However, they assume that the particles are distinguishable and neglect bosonic and fermionic exchange effects. Interacting fermions play a key role in many chemical and physical systems, such as electrons in quantum dots and ultracold trapped atoms. A direct sampling of the fermionic partition function is impossible using PIMD since its integrand is not positive definite. We show that PIMD simulations for fermions are feasible by employing our recently developed method for bosonic PIMD and reweighting the results to obtain fermionic expectation values. The approach is tested against path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations for up to seven electrons in a two-dimensional quantum dot for a range of interaction strengths. However, like PIMC, the method suffers from the sign problem at low temperatures. We propose a simple approach for alleviating it by simulating an auxiliary system with a larger average sign and obtaining an upper bound to the energy of the original system using the Bogoliubov inequality. This allows fermions to be studied at temperatures lower than would otherwise have been feasible using PIMD, as demonstrated in the case of a three-electron quantum dot. Our results extend the boundaries of PIMD simulations of fermions and will hopefully stimulate the development of new approaches for tackling the sign problem.
Recent advances in warm dense matter physics, e.g. laser compressed matter, lead to an increasing interest in the description of correlated, degenerate electrons at finite temperatures. Path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methods cannot correctly describe weakly to moderately coupled and strongly degenerate Fermi systems due to the so-called fermion sign problem. The Configuration Path Integral Monte Carlo (CPIMC) approach greatly reduces the sign problem and allows for the exact computation of thermodynamic properties in this regime. In addition, the first successful implementation of the diagrammatic worm algorithm for a general Hamiltonian in Fock space with arbitrary pair interactions gives direct access to the Matsubara Green function.
This thesis demonstrates the capabilities of the CPIMC approach for a model system of Coulomb interacting fermions in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. The correctness of the CPIMC implementation is verified by rigorous comparisons with an exact diagonalization method. Benchmark results are presented, which reveal large errors of the Hartree-Fock approximation in open shell configurations even for weak coupling and a significant deviation of multi-level blocking PIMC data in the complete basis set limit.
The application of the CPIMC method to the warm dense homogeneous electron gas (HEG) quantifies the accuracy of recently published restricted PIMC (RPIMC) results, which have been the basis for the construction of exchange-correlation free energy functionals to be used in finite-temperature density functional theory calculations of warm dense matter. It is shown that the errors of the RPIMC data exceed 10 % at intermediate densities. Additionally, highly accurate data for the exchange-correlation energy at high densities, which are inaccessible by the RPIMC method, are provided. These results are needed to significantly increase the quality of future exchange-correlation functionals to be used in finite-temperature applications.