Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Linear scaling for the local energy in quantum Monte Carlo

Sebastian Manten, Arne Lüchow

Published Jun 18, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes the use of localized orbitals and shortrange correlation functions to achieve near linear scaling in fixednode diffusion QMC calculations. The success of the method is demonstrated with a series of all-electron calculations for linear hydrocarbons in the range of C2H6 to C2sHs2 with 18 to 202 electrons. The procedure used was not very different from that of earlier all-electron calculations for systems of these sizes. Some changes were needed for evaluation of the trial wave functions and their derivatives. The molecular orbitals for the determinantal wavefunction were composed of contracted Gaussian functions decaying rapidly with distance but limited by a cut-off radius. The resulting determinants were sparse and could be evaluated by a standard matrix LU decomposition package. The standard Schmidt Moskowitz correlation function was modified with use of a short-range scaled distance to allow short cut-off radii.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780195310108.003.00142

Related papers

Linear-scaling quantum Monte Carlo calculations

Andrew Williamson, Randolph Q. Hood, Jeffrey C. Grossman

Abstract This study demonstrates linear scaling with system size in fixednode diffusion QMC calculations with pseudopotentials for carbon fullerenes and for hydrogenated silicon clusters with nearly 1000 valence electrons. The range covered is C20 to C18o and SiH4 to Si211H140, The calculations were carried out with standard pseudopotentials (leaving four electrons per C or Si atom) and Slater Jastrow trial functions with orbitals from LDA density functional calculations. The key elements leading to linear scaling were constructions of sparse determinants and simplification of orbital functions. The LDA orbitals were obtained with a plane-wave basis set which was transformed to yield Wannier functions with maximum localization. These functions were then fitted to cubic spline expressions with a limited number of grid points and cut-off distances matching those of the plane-wave orbitals. The computational effort for evaluating trial functions of this type was clearly seen to behave in a linear fashion. Exploration of the effects of variation of cut-off radius revealed that energies, sensitive only to node structures, increased rapidly for cut-offs less than 7 bohr but were unaffected for cutoffs greater than 7 bohr. The accuracies of the calculations were checked in other ways. These included comparison calculations for SiH3 and Si5H12 using Gaussian, original plane-wave, and Wannier function basis sets which gave close agreement for energies.

•Jun 18, 2007•0 citations

Linear-scaling evaluation of the local energy in quantum Monte Carlo

Brian M. Austin, Alán Aspuru‐Guzik, Romelia Salomón–Ferrer +1 more

For atomic and molecular quantum Monte Carlo calculations, most of the computational effort is spent in the evaluation of the local energy. We describe a scheme for reducing the computational cost of the evaluation of the Slater determinants and correlation function for the correlated molecular orbital (CMO) ansatz. A sparse representation of the Slater determinants makes possible efficient evaluation of molecular orbitals. A modification to the scaled distance function facilitates a linear scaling implementation of the Schmidt-Moskowitz-Boys-Handy (SMBH) correlation function that preserves the efficient matrix multiplication structure of the SMBH function. For the evaluation of the local energy, these two methods lead to asymptotic linear scaling with respect to the molecule size.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory•Feb 11, 2006•0 citations

Linear-Scaling Evaluation of the Local Energy in Quantum Monte Carlo

Brian M. Austin, Alán Aspuru‐Guzik, Romelia Salomón–Ferrer +1 more

For atomic and molecular quantum Monte Carlo calculations, most of the computational effort is spent in the evaluation of the local energy. We describe a scheme for reducing the computational cost of the evaluation of the Slater determinants and correlation function for the correlated molecular orbital (CMO) ansatz. A sparse representation of the Slater determinants makes possible efficient evaluation of molecular orbitals. A modification to the scaled distance function facilitates a linear scaling implementation of the Schmidt- Moskowitz-Boys-Handy (SMBH) correlation function that preserves the efficient matrix multiplication structure of the SMBH function. For the evaluation of the local energy, these two methods lead to asymptotic linear scaling with respect to the molecule size.

ACS symposium series•Dec 31, 2006•3 citations

Linear scaling for the local energy in quantum Monte Carlo

Sebastian Manten, Arne Lüchow

The scaling of the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method can be greatly improved when localized orbitals and short-range correlation functions are employed as recently suggested by the authors. The local diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method is described in detail with a careful analysis of errors. The new method achieves near linear scaling in the calculation of the local energy. Results demonstrating the improved performance are presented.

The Journal of Chemical Physics•Jul 3, 2003•29 citations

Linear-Scaling Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations

Andrew Williamson, Randolph Q. Hood, Jeffrey C. Grossman

A method is presented for using truncated, maximally localized Wannier functions to introduce sparsity into the Slater determinant part of the trial wave function in quantum Monte Carlo calculations. When combined with an efficient numerical evaluation of these localized orbitals, the dominant cost in the calculation, namely, the evaluation of the Slater determinant, scales linearly with system size. This technique is applied to accurate total energy calculation of hydrogenated silicon clusters and carbon fullerenes containing 20-1000 valence electrons.

Physical Review Letters•Nov 26, 2001•157 citations

Optimized nonorthogonal localized orbitals for linear scaling quantum Monte Carlo calculations

Fernando Agustín Reboredo, Andrew Williamson

We derive an automatic procedure for generating a set of highly localized, nonorthogonal orbitals for linear scaling quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations. We demonstrate the advantage of these orbitals for calculating the total energy of both semiconducting and metallic systems by studying bulk silicon and the homogeneous electron gas. For silicon, the improved localization of these orbitals reduces the computational time by a factor of 5 and the memory by a factor of 6 compared to localized, orthogonal orbitals. For jellium at typical metallic densities, we demonstrate that the total energy is converged to 3 meV per electron for orbitals truncated within spheres with radii $7{r}_{s}$, opening the possibility of linear scaling QMC calculations for realistic metallic systems.

Physical Review B•Mar 23, 2005•39 citations
Abstract This paper describes the use of localized orbitals and shortrange correlation functions to achieve near linear scaling in fixednode diffusion QMC calculations. The success of the method is demonstrated with a series of all-electron calculations for linear hydrocarbons in the range of C2H6 to C2sHs2 with 18 to 202 electrons. The procedure used was not very different from that of earlier all-electron calculations for systems of these sizes. Some changes were needed for evaluation of the trial wave functions and their derivatives. The molecular orbitals for the determinantal wavefunction were composed of contracted Gaussian functions decaying rapidly with distance but limited by a cut-off radius. The resulting determinants were sparse and could be evaluated by a standard matrix LU decomposition package. The standard Schmidt Moskowitz correlation function was modified with use of a short-range scaled distance to allow short cut-off radii.
Abstract This study demonstrates linear scaling with system size in fixednode diffusion QMC calculations with pseudopotentials for carbon fullerenes and for hydrogenated silicon clusters with nearly 1000 valence electrons. The range covered is C20 to C18o and SiH4 to Si211H140, The calculations were carried out with standard pseudopotentials (leaving four electrons per C or Si atom) and Slater Jastrow trial functions with orbitals from LDA density functional calculations. The key elements leading to linear scaling were constructions of sparse determinants and simplification of orbital functions. The LDA orbitals were obtained with a plane-wave basis set which was transformed to yield Wannier functions with maximum localization. These functions were then fitted to cubic spline expressions with a limited number of grid points and cut-off distances matching those of the plane-wave orbitals. The computational effort for evaluating trial functions of this type was clearly seen to behave in a linear fashion. Exploration of the effects of variation of cut-off radius revealed that energies, sensitive only to node structures, increased rapidly for cut-offs less than 7 bohr but were unaffected for cutoffs greater than 7 bohr. The accuracies of the calculations were checked in other ways. These included comparison calculations for SiH3 and Si5H12 using Gaussian, original plane-wave, and Wannier function basis sets which gave close agreement for energies.
For atomic and molecular quantum Monte Carlo calculations, most of the computational effort is spent in the evaluation of the local energy. We describe a scheme for reducing the computational cost of the evaluation of the Slater determinants and correlation function for the correlated molecular orbital (CMO) ansatz. A sparse representation of the Slater determinants makes possible efficient evaluation of molecular orbitals. A modification to the scaled distance function facilitates a linear scaling implementation of the Schmidt-Moskowitz-Boys-Handy (SMBH) correlation function that preserves the efficient matrix multiplication structure of the SMBH function. For the evaluation of the local energy, these two methods lead to asymptotic linear scaling with respect to the molecule size.
For atomic and molecular quantum Monte Carlo calculations, most of the computational effort is spent in the evaluation of the local energy. We describe a scheme for reducing the computational cost of the evaluation of the Slater determinants and correlation function for the correlated molecular orbital (CMO) ansatz. A sparse representation of the Slater determinants makes possible efficient evaluation of molecular orbitals. A modification to the scaled distance function facilitates a linear scaling implementation of the Schmidt- Moskowitz-Boys-Handy (SMBH) correlation function that preserves the efficient matrix multiplication structure of the SMBH function. For the evaluation of the local energy, these two methods lead to asymptotic linear scaling with respect to the molecule size.
A method is presented for using truncated, maximally localized Wannier functions to introduce sparsity into the Slater determinant part of the trial wave function in quantum Monte Carlo calculations. When combined with an efficient numerical evaluation of these localized orbitals, the dominant cost in the calculation, namely, the evaluation of the Slater determinant, scales linearly with system size. This technique is applied to accurate total energy calculation of hydrogenated silicon clusters and carbon fullerenes containing 20-1000 valence electrons.
We derive an automatic procedure for generating a set of highly localized, nonorthogonal orbitals for linear scaling quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations. We demonstrate the advantage of these orbitals for calculating the total energy of both semiconducting and metallic systems by studying bulk silicon and the homogeneous electron gas. For silicon, the improved localization of these orbitals reduces the computational time by a factor of 5 and the memory by a factor of 6 compared to localized, orthogonal orbitals. For jellium at typical metallic densities, we demonstrate that the total energy is converged to 3 meV per electron for orbitals truncated within spheres with radii 7rs7{r}_{s}7rs​, opening the possibility of linear scaling QMC calculations for realistic metallic systems.