A quantum Monte Carlo study of hardwall spherical quantum dots

Abstract

Using variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo methods, we have calculated the low- and high-spin state energies for a hardwall quantum dot model containing N ⩽ 10 electrons. Our results are slightly lower than those obtained by Hartree–Fock and are in agreement with full configuration interaction calculations available for N = 3, 4, 5. We have observed that due to a very small difference between low- and high-spin state energies at sufficiently low electronic densities, the system might present spin-blockade effects.