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Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics

Excited states by quantum Monte Carlo methods: Imaginary time evolution with projection operators

D. Blume, Marius Lewerenz, Parhat Niyaz, K. Birgitta Whaley

Published Mar 1, 1997• 64 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a Monte Carlo algorithm suitable for the calculation of excited state energies of multidimensional quantum systems. Energies are extracted from a maximum entropy analysis of the imaginary time evolution of a state prepared by application of a projection operator on an initial wave function. The imaginary time evolution is computed with a pure diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm. The method is demonstrated on a harmonic oscillator and several Morse oscillator test problems.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.55.3664

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We present a Monte Carlo algorithm suitable for the calculation of excited state energies of multidimensional quantum systems. Energies are extracted from a maximum entropy analysis of the imaginary time evolution of a state prepared by application of a projection operator on an initial wave function. The imaginary time evolution is computed with a pure diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm. The method is demonstrated on a harmonic oscillator and several Morse oscillator test problems.
Direct sampling of multi-dimensional systems with quantum Monte Carlo methods allows exact account of many-body effects or particle correlations. The most straightforward approach to solve the Schrödinger equation, Diffusion Monte Carlo, has been used in several benchmark cases for other methods to pursue. Its robustness is based on direct sampling of a positive probability density for diffusion in imaginary time. It has been argued that the corresponding real time diffusion can not be realised, because the corresponding oscillating complex valued distribution can not be used to drive diffusion. Here, we demonstrate that this can be done by turning the distribution piecewise positive and normalizable, and also, by using four types of walkers. This study is a proof of concept demonstration using the well-known and transparent case: one-dimensional harmonic oscillator. Furthermore, we show that our novel method can be used to find not only the ground state but also excited states and even the time evolution of a given wave function. Considering fermionic systems, this method may turn out to be feasible for finding the wave function nodes for other approaches.
We describe and systematically analyze new implementations of the Projection Operator Imaginary Time Spectral Evolution (POITSE) method for the Monte Carlo evaluation of excited state energies. The POITSE method involves the computation of a correlation function in imaginary time. Decay of this function contains information about excitation energies, which can be extracted by a spectral transform. By incorporating branching processes in the Monte Carlo propagation, we compute these correlation functions with significantly reduced statistical noise. Our approach allows for the stable evaluation of small energy differences in situations where the previous POITSE implementation was limited by this noise.
We used methods of Bayesian statistical inference and the principle of maximum entropy to analytically continue imaginary-time Green's functions generated in quantum Monte Carlo simulations to obtain the real-time Green's functions. For test problems, we considered chains of harmonic and anharmonic oscillators whose properties we simulated by a hybrid path-integral quantum Monte Carlo method. From the imaginary-time displacement-displacement Green's function, we first obtained its spectral density. For harmonic oscillators, we demonstrated the peaks of this function were in the correct position and their areas satisfied a sum rule. Additionally, as a function of wave number, the peak positions followed the correct dispersion relation. For a double-well oscillator, we demonstrated that the peak location correctly predicted the tunnel splitting. Transforming the spectral densities to real-time Green's functions, we conclude that we can predict the real-time dynamics for length of times corresponding to five to ten times the natural period of the model. The length of time was limited by an overbroadening of the peaks in the spectral density caused by the simulation algorithm. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
A new Monte Carlo method for computing excited state properties of quantum systems is introduced. It is a generalization of the transient estimate method used for fermion Green’s function Monte Carlo and of subspace projection methods used for computing eigenstates of matrices. The time dependent autocorrelation function of a vector of trial functions is calculated for a random walk generated by the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation and estimates of energy levels are determined by the eigenvalues of the matrix of correlation functions. This method is especially useful for treating states with the same symmetry as it automatically keeps higher states orthogonal to lower states. The estimated energy converges to the exact eigenvalue with a rate which decreases with increasing excitation energy, thus limiting the method to relatively low-lying states. The method is zero variance in the sense that as better trial functions are introduced, the statistical error decreases to zero. The method has a nontrivial bias which is analyzed. As an illustration, the eigenvalues of a double well are computed.
A novel scheme to solve the quantum eigenvalue problem through the imaginary-time Green function Monte Carlo method is presented. This method is applicable not only to the ground states, but also to the excited states of generic system. We demonstrate the actual utility of the method with the numerical examples on three simple systems. Typeset using REVTEX 1 The stochastic quantization has been successfully applied in recent years to the various problems of physics ranging from quantum chromo dynamics to the plasmon oscillation [1-3]. While it can handle very complex systems which is usually beyond the approach either by the direct diagonalization or by the perturbation, it has been only applicable to the calculation of the ground state properties of the system. In this paper, we propose a new method based on the imaginary-time Green function Monte Carlo approach, which is extendable to the excited states of Hamiltonian system. We have primarily in mind the non-relativistic quantum few body problem such as encountered in nuclear physics [4-6].
A wave function written in analytical form is a simplistic version of the true wave function. Normally, a wave function evolves in time in an oscillatory fashion, each oscillation corresponds to an energy eigenvalue—quantities we can't compute in a many-body system. In imaginary time, however, the oscillations turn into decaying amplitudes, the higher the energy the faster it decays. This gives us the change to project out a low-energy state. The algorithm that does imaginary-time evolution is called diffusion Monte Carlo. It won't lead to a better analytical form of a wave function, but nevertheless lets us compute its properties, which, after all, is all we want.