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

Scientific Reports

Multireference diffusion Monte Carlo reaches 2D materials

Nicole Spanedda, Anouar Benali, Fernando Agustín Reboredo, Jaron T. Krogel

Published Sep 26, 2025• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum confinement in 2D materials strongly enhances electronic correlation effects. Therefore, predicting the properties of these unique materials, with both a high level of accuracy and computational efficiency, without relying on adjustable parameters or functionals, remains an outstanding theoretical challenge. The majority of theoretical studies are based on the approximations of density functional theory (DFT). The reliability of DFT predictions are heavily dependent on the choice of an approximated exchange-correlation functional. Here, we estimate the magnitude of impact of correlation on the total energy for the quintessential 2D material, graphene, by performing and comparing state-of-the-art selected CI and quantum Monte Carlo extrapolated calculations for a single unit cell at the Γ point. We demonstrate that Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) obtains a very compact, but high-quality wavefunction for this system that lacks the strong basis set dependence displayed by state of the art quantum chemistry methods. The SHDMC wavefunction is of higher quality compared to that obtained from sCI, in the same orbital basis, while being ∼ 1000 times smaller in terms of determinant count compared to sCI. We also demonstrate that extrapolating SHDMC results to the infinite determinant limit compares extremely well with complete basis set extrapolated sCI. Our work paves the way for future validation of SHDMC applied to challenging 2D materials.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-025-17564-3

Related papers

Active space selection with self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo algorithms for periodic solids

Nicole Spanedda, Jaron T. Krogel, Fernando Agustín Reboredo

Multideterminant Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) displays improved accuracy over single determinant DMC. Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) is a DMC based method that iteratively improves a multideterminant trial wavefunction. Although configuration interaction or complete active space (CAS) methods are very accurate and computationally feasible for many systems, they are not optimal for application to solids. SHDMC is accurate and designed for application to solids, so developing SHDMC based active space selection algorithms is a worthy endeavor. Here, we present and compare active space selection algorithms that are designed for use in conjunction with SHDMC, without relying on external approaches. For benchmarking, we calculated the ground state energy of a small unit cell of graphene and compared the results with a complete basis set extrapolated selected CI and a reference SHDMC trajectory. We found that systematically expanding the active space using an "auto-branching" algorithm optimally balances accuracy with computational practicality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that demonstrates completely self-contained DMC-based active space selection algorithms that do not depend on external methods for determinant selection.

The Journal of Chemical Physics•Aug 3, 2026•0 citations

Graphene SHDMC Data

Nicole Spanedda

The data used to produce all of the figures and tables in the manuscript titled "Highly Accurate Many-Body Theory Reaches 2D Materials" can be found here. This data set includes: -SHDMC results for graphene -selected CI with and without re-normalized second-order perturbation (rPT2) theory corrections for graphene -data demonstrating that SHDMC displays an exponential rate of convergence -data used for sCI + rPT2 complete basis set extrapolation -data used to extrapolate SHDMC energies to the infinite basis limit -data used to demonstrate compactness of SHDMC wavefunction

•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations

Systematic Reduction of Sign Errors in Many-Body Calculations of Atoms and Molecules

Michal Bajdich, Murilo L. Tiago, Randolph Q. Hood +2 more

The self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm (SHDMC) is shown to be an accurate and robust method for calculating the ground state of atoms and molecules. By direct comparison with accurate configuration interaction results for the oxygen atom, we show that SHDMC converges systematically towards the ground-state wave function. We present results for the challenging N2 molecule, where the binding energies obtained via both energy minimization and SHDMC are near chemical accuracy (1 kcal/mol). Moreover, we demonstrate that SHDMC is robust enough to find the nodal surface for systems at least as large as C20 starting from random coefficients. SHDMC is a linear-scaling method, in the degrees of freedom of the nodes, that systematically reduces the fermion sign problem.

arXiv:0912.3826•Physical Review Letters•May 11, 2010•30 citations

Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo applied to a simple fermionic model: A critical assessment of the method

Michel Caffarel, Manon Pinar, Anthony Scemama

We investigate the Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) method using a one-dimensional model with periodic boundary conditions. An inversion symmetry is introduced to mimic the antisymmetry property of fermionic wave functions, with the bosonic and fermionic sectors being modeled by the even and odd eigenstates, respectively. As in realistic fermionic systems, the nodal structure is only partially constrained by symmetry, making this model a non-trivial testbed for nodal optimization algorithms such as SHDMC. We show that the nodal evolution under SHDMC iterations can be cast into a dynamical system exhibiting both attractive and repulsive fixed points. When applying SHDMC to this model in the absence of statistical noise, the fixed-node energy is found to increase during iterations and the node converges to an incorrect value. This occurs for any finite basis, even when the exact node is representable in it; the attractive fixed point approaches the exact node only as the basis becomes complete, while the convergence toward it becomes increasingly slow. We further show that this problem can be largely cured by modifying the nodal update criterion to give more importance to the nodal region. Our results suggest that, in the general case, an efficient nodal optimization may require both an improved nodal update criterion and a localized basis set allowing local distortions of the trial wave function, as is the case for this model.

arXiv:2609.01301•Sep 1, 2026•0 citations

Influence of single particle orbital sets and configuration selection on multideterminant wavefunctions in quantum Monte Carlo

Raymond C. Clay, Miguel A. Morales

Multideterminant wavefunctions, while having a long history in quantum chemistry, are increasingly being used in highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculations. Since the accuracy of QMC is ultimately limited by the quality of the trial wavefunction, multi-Slater determinants wavefunctions offer an attractive alternative to Slater-Jastrow and more sophisticated wavefunction ansatz for several reasons. They can be efficiently calculated, straightforwardly optimized, and systematically improved by increasing the number of included determinants. In spite of their potential, however, the convergence properties of multi-Slater determinant wavefunctions with respect to orbital set choice and excited determinant selection are poorly understood, which hinders the application of these wavefunctions to large systems and solids. In this paper, by performing QMC calculations on the equilibrium and stretched carbon dimer, we find that convergence of the recovered correlation energy with respect to number of determinants can depend quite strongly on basis set and determinant selection methods, especially where there is strong correlation. We demonstrate that properly chosen orbital sets and determinant selection techniques from quantum chemistry methods can dramatically reduce the required number of determinants (and thus the computational cost) to reach a given accuracy, which we argue shows clear need for an automatic QMC-only method for selecting determinants and generating optimal orbital sets.

The Journal of Chemical Physics•Jun 16, 2015•23 citations

Systematic comparison and cross-validation of fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo and phaseless auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo in solids

Fionn D. Malone, Anouar Benali, Miguel A. Morales +3 more

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods are some of the most accurate methods for simulating correlated electronic systems. We investigate the compatibility, strengths, and weaknesses of two such methods, namely, diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC). The multideterminant trial wave functions employed in both approaches are generated using the configuration interaction using a perturbative selection made iteratively (CIPSI) technique. Complete basis-set full configuration interaction energies estimated with CIPSI are used as a reference in this comparative study between DMC and AFQMC. By focusing on a set of canonical finite--size solid-state systems, we show that both QMC methods can be made to systematically converge towards the same energy once basis-set effects and systematic biases have been removed. AFQMC shows a much smaller dependence on the trial wave function than DMC while simultaneously exhibiting a much larger basis-set dependence. We outline some of the remaining challenges and opportunities for improving these approaches.

arXiv:2007.05587•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Oct 7, 2020•26 citations
Quantum confinement in 2D materials strongly enhances electronic correlation effects. Therefore, predicting the properties of these unique materials, with both a high level of accuracy and computational efficiency, without relying on adjustable parameters or functionals, remains an outstanding theoretical challenge. The majority of theoretical studies are based on the approximations of density functional theory (DFT). The reliability of DFT predictions are heavily dependent on the choice of an approximated exchange-correlation functional. Here, we estimate the magnitude of impact of correlation on the total energy for the quintessential 2D material, graphene, by performing and comparing state-of-the-art selected CI and quantum Monte Carlo extrapolated calculations for a single unit cell at the Γ point. We demonstrate that Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) obtains a very compact, but high-quality wavefunction for this system that lacks the strong basis set dependence displayed by state of the art quantum chemistry methods. The SHDMC wavefunction is of higher quality compared to that obtained from sCI, in the same orbital basis, while being ∼ 1000 times smaller in terms of determinant count compared to sCI. We also demonstrate that extrapolating SHDMC results to the infinite determinant limit compares extremely well with complete basis set extrapolated sCI. Our work paves the way for future validation of SHDMC applied to challenging 2D materials.
Multideterminant Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) displays improved accuracy over single determinant DMC. Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) is a DMC based method that iteratively improves a multideterminant trial wavefunction. Although configuration interaction or complete active space (CAS) methods are very accurate and computationally feasible for many systems, they are not optimal for application to solids. SHDMC is accurate and designed for application to solids, so developing SHDMC based active space selection algorithms is a worthy endeavor. Here, we present and compare active space selection algorithms that are designed for use in conjunction with SHDMC, without relying on external approaches. For benchmarking, we calculated the ground state energy of a small unit cell of graphene and compared the results with a complete basis set extrapolated selected CI and a reference SHDMC trajectory. We found that systematically expanding the active space using an "auto-branching" algorithm optimally balances accuracy with computational practicality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that demonstrates completely self-contained DMC-based active space selection algorithms that do not depend on external methods for determinant selection.
The data used to produce all of the figures and tables in the manuscript titled "Highly Accurate Many-Body Theory Reaches 2D Materials" can be found here. This data set includes: -SHDMC results for graphene -selected CI with and without re-normalized second-order perturbation (rPT2) theory corrections for graphene -data demonstrating that SHDMC displays an exponential rate of convergence -data used for sCI + rPT2 complete basis set extrapolation -data used to extrapolate SHDMC energies to the infinite basis limit -data used to demonstrate compactness of SHDMC wavefunction
The self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm (SHDMC) is shown to be an accurate and robust method for calculating the ground state of atoms and molecules. By direct comparison with accurate configuration interaction results for the oxygen atom, we show that SHDMC converges systematically towards the ground-state wave function. We present results for the challenging N2 molecule, where the binding energies obtained via both energy minimization and SHDMC are near chemical accuracy (1 kcal/mol). Moreover, we demonstrate that SHDMC is robust enough to find the nodal surface for systems at least as large as C20 starting from random coefficients. SHDMC is a linear-scaling method, in the degrees of freedom of the nodes, that systematically reduces the fermion sign problem.
We investigate the Self-Healing Diffusion Monte Carlo (SHDMC) method using a one-dimensional model with periodic boundary conditions. An inversion symmetry is introduced to mimic the antisymmetry property of fermionic wave functions, with the bosonic and fermionic sectors being modeled by the even and odd eigenstates, respectively. As in realistic fermionic systems, the nodal structure is only partially constrained by symmetry, making this model a non-trivial testbed for nodal optimization algorithms such as SHDMC. We show that the nodal evolution under SHDMC iterations can be cast into a dynamical system exhibiting both attractive and repulsive fixed points. When applying SHDMC to this model in the absence of statistical noise, the fixed-node energy is found to increase during iterations and the node converges to an incorrect value. This occurs for any finite basis, even when the exact node is representable in it; the attractive fixed point approaches the exact node only as the basis becomes complete, while the convergence toward it becomes increasingly slow. We further show that this problem can be largely cured by modifying the nodal update criterion to give more importance to the nodal region. Our results suggest that, in the general case, an efficient nodal optimization may require both an improved nodal update criterion and a localized basis set allowing local distortions of the trial wave function, as is the case for this model.
Multideterminant wavefunctions, while having a long history in quantum chemistry, are increasingly being used in highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculations. Since the accuracy of QMC is ultimately limited by the quality of the trial wavefunction, multi-Slater determinants wavefunctions offer an attractive alternative to Slater-Jastrow and more sophisticated wavefunction ansatz for several reasons. They can be efficiently calculated, straightforwardly optimized, and systematically improved by increasing the number of included determinants. In spite of their potential, however, the convergence properties of multi-Slater determinant wavefunctions with respect to orbital set choice and excited determinant selection are poorly understood, which hinders the application of these wavefunctions to large systems and solids. In this paper, by performing QMC calculations on the equilibrium and stretched carbon dimer, we find that convergence of the recovered correlation energy with respect to number of determinants can depend quite strongly on basis set and determinant selection methods, especially where there is strong correlation. We demonstrate that properly chosen orbital sets and determinant selection techniques from quantum chemistry methods can dramatically reduce the required number of determinants (and thus the computational cost) to reach a given accuracy, which we argue shows clear need for an automatic QMC-only method for selecting determinants and generating optimal orbital sets.
Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods are some of the most accurate methods for simulating correlated electronic systems. We investigate the compatibility, strengths, and weaknesses of two such methods, namely, diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC). The multideterminant trial wave functions employed in both approaches are generated using the configuration interaction using a perturbative selection made iteratively (CIPSI) technique. Complete basis-set full configuration interaction energies estimated with CIPSI are used as a reference in this comparative study between DMC and AFQMC. By focusing on a set of canonical finite--size solid-state systems, we show that both QMC methods can be made to systematically converge towards the same energy once basis-set effects and systematic biases have been removed. AFQMC shows a much smaller dependence on the trial wave function than DMC while simultaneously exhibiting a much larger basis-set dependence. We outline some of the remaining challenges and opportunities for improving these approaches.