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Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Projector Monte Carlo method

R. Blankenbecler, Robert L. Sugar

Published Mar 15, 1983• 84 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A simulation method for the calculation of properties of lattice field theories is studied. This method involves the numerical evaluation of projection operators onto low-lying quantum states. It is an alternative to the standard Monte Carlo evaluation of path integrals or the trace of the partition function and has many advantages. As an illustration, it is applied to a one-dimensional many-fermion system.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.27.1304

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Projector quantum Monte Carlo

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… as suggested by Fermi, the time-independent Schrödinger equation … can be interpreted as describing the behavior of a system of particles each of which performs a random walk, i.e., diffuses isotropically and at the same time is subject to multiplication, which is determined by the value of the point function V. N. Metropolis and S. Ulam, 1949 Summary In the projector quantum Monte Carlo method, one uses a function of the hamiltonian to sample a distribution proportional to the exact ground-state wavefunction, and thereby computes exact matrix elements of it. An importance sampling transformation makes the algorithm much more efficient. In this chapter we introduce and develop the diffusion Monte Carlo method, which involves drifting, branching random walks. For any excited state, including any system with more than two electrons, one encounters the sign problem, limiting the direct application of these algorithms for most fermion systems. Instead, by using approximate fixed-node or fixed-phase boundary conditions, one can achieve efficiency similar to variational Monte Carlo. We also discuss the application of the projector method in a basis of Slater determinants. In this chapter, we discuss a different quantum Monte Carlo method, projector Monte Carlo (PMC). This general method was first suggested by Fermi [1049]; see the quote at the start of this chapter by two of the inventors of the Monte Carlo method. An implementation of PMC was tried out in the early days of computing [1050]. Advances in methodology, in particular importance sampling, resulted in a significant large-scale application: the exact calculation of the ground-state properties of 256 hard-sphere bosons by Kalos, Levesque, and Verlet [1051] in 1974. Calculations for electronic systems and the fixednode approximation were introduced by Anderson [1052, 1053]. One of the most important projector MC algorithms, the diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm with importance sampling for fermions, was used to compute the correlation energy of homogeneous electron gas by Ceperley and Alder [109] in 1980; the resulting HEG correlation energy was crucial in the development of density functional calculations. Types and properties of projectors In this method, a many-body projector G ( R , R ) = Ĝ is repeatedly applied to filter out the exact many-body ground state from an initial state; the operation of the projector is carried out with a random walk, hence the name of this class of methods.

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We present lattice Monte Carlo calculations of fermion-dimer scattering in the limit of zero-range interactions using the adiabatic projection method. The adiabatic projection method uses a set of initial cluster states and Euclidean time projection to give a systematically improvable description of the low-lying scattering cluster states in a finite volume. We use L\"uscher's finite-volume relations to determine the $s$-wave, $p$-wave, and $d$-wave phase shifts. For comparison, we also compute exact lattice results using Lanczos iteration and continuum results using the Skorniakov-Ter-Martirosian equation. For our Monte Carlo calculations we use a new lattice algorithm called impurity lattice Monte Carlo. This algorithm can be viewed as a hybrid technique which incorporates elements of both worldline and auxiliary-field Monte Carlo simulations.

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A simulation method for the calculation of properties of lattice field theories is studied. This method involves the numerical evaluation of projection operators onto low-lying quantum states. It is an alternative to the standard Monte Carlo evaluation of path integrals or the trace of the partition function and has many advantages. As an illustration, it is applied to a one-dimensional many-fermion system.
… as suggested by Fermi, the time-independent Schrödinger equation … can be interpreted as describing the behavior of a system of particles each of which performs a random walk, i.e., diffuses isotropically and at the same time is subject to multiplication, which is determined by the value of the point function V. N. Metropolis and S. Ulam, 1949 Summary In the projector quantum Monte Carlo method, one uses a function of the hamiltonian to sample a distribution proportional to the exact ground-state wavefunction, and thereby computes exact matrix elements of it. An importance sampling transformation makes the algorithm much more efficient. In this chapter we introduce and develop the diffusion Monte Carlo method, which involves drifting, branching random walks. For any excited state, including any system with more than two electrons, one encounters the sign problem, limiting the direct application of these algorithms for most fermion systems. Instead, by using approximate fixed-node or fixed-phase boundary conditions, one can achieve efficiency similar to variational Monte Carlo. We also discuss the application of the projector method in a basis of Slater determinants. In this chapter, we discuss a different quantum Monte Carlo method, projector Monte Carlo (PMC). This general method was first suggested by Fermi [1049]; see the quote at the start of this chapter by two of the inventors of the Monte Carlo method. An implementation of PMC was tried out in the early days of computing [1050]. Advances in methodology, in particular importance sampling, resulted in a significant large-scale application: the exact calculation of the ground-state properties of 256 hard-sphere bosons by Kalos, Levesque, and Verlet [1051] in 1974. Calculations for electronic systems and the fixednode approximation were introduced by Anderson [1052, 1053]. One of the most important projector MC algorithms, the diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm with importance sampling for fermions, was used to compute the correlation energy of homogeneous electron gas by Ceperley and Alder [109] in 1980; the resulting HEG correlation energy was crucial in the development of density functional calculations. Types and properties of projectors In this method, a many-body projector G ( R , R ) = Ĝ is repeatedly applied to filter out the exact many-body ground state from an initial state; the operation of the projector is carried out with a random walk, hence the name of this class of methods.
We present in detail the recently developed multiconfigurational symmetrized projector quantum Monte Carlo method for excited states of the Hubbard model. We describe the implementation of the Monte Carlo method for a multiconfigurational trial wave function. We give a detailed discussion of issues related to the symmetry of the projection procedure that validates our Monte Carlo procedure for excited states. In this context we discuss various averaging procedures for the Green function and present an analysis of the errors incurred in these procedures. We study the ground-state energy and correlation functions of the one-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling to confirm these analyses. We then study the energies and correlation functions of excited states of Hubbard chains. Hubbard rings away from half-filling are also studied and the pair binding energies for holes of 4n4n4n and 4n+24n+24n+2 systems are compared with the Bethe ansatz results of Fye, Martins, and Scalettar [Phys. Rev. B 42, 6809 (1990)]. Our study of the two-dimensional Hubbard model includes the $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ ladder and the $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4$ lattice with periodic boundary conditions. The $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}4$ lattice is nonbipartite and amenable to exact diagonalization studies and is, therefore, a good candidate for checks on the method. We are able to reproduce accurately the energies of ground and excited states, both at and away from half-filling. We study the properties of the $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ Hubbard ladder with bond alternation as the correlation strength and filling are varied. The method reproduces the correlation functions accurately. We also examine the severity of sign problem for one- and two-dimensional systems.
An introduction is given to the methodology of the path-integral formulation of quantum Monte Carlo simulation. This allows us to reformulate a d −dimensional partition function of a quantum mechanical system into the form of a d +1−dimensional path-integral written in classical mechanical variables. In addition, the quantum mechanical partition function is shown to be related by a process of analytical continuation to the time-development operator of the quantum mechanical system. The evaluation of the path-integral representation is discussed for the Maxwell-Boltzmann ideal gas, a chain of atoms, and liquid 4 He . The properties of liquid Helium I and Helium II are discussed in terms of the two-fluid model, the Ginzburg theory, and recent quantum Monte Carlo Simulation studies. The properties of liquid 3 He are discussed in the context of recent analytical p-wave pairing theories which are compared to the theory of s-wave pairing in the theory of superconducting electron.
The ground state of a many-electron system can be projected from a trial state using an integral of one-electron projectors over a set of Hubbard-Stratonovich auxiliary fields. We have explored several alternative formulations of this method and find that the convergence of the ground-state energy with the number of field variables can be dramatically improved by choosing the appropriate one. This is illustrated using the two-dimensional Hubbard model as an example. These results are also used to examine the error associated with neglecting the so-called ``sign problem'' common to quantum Monte Carlo many-fermion calculations.
We present lattice Monte Carlo calculations of fermion-dimer scattering in the limit of zero-range interactions using the adiabatic projection method. The adiabatic projection method uses a set of initial cluster states and Euclidean time projection to give a systematically improvable description of the low-lying scattering cluster states in a finite volume. We use L\"uscher's finite-volume relations to determine the sss-wave, ppp-wave, and ddd-wave phase shifts. For comparison, we also compute exact lattice results using Lanczos iteration and continuum results using the Skorniakov-Ter-Martirosian equation. For our Monte Carlo calculations we use a new lattice algorithm called impurity lattice Monte Carlo. This algorithm can be viewed as a hybrid technique which incorporates elements of both worldline and auxiliary-field Monte Carlo simulations.