Estimation of the Ground State Energy of an Atomic Solid by Employing Quantum Trajectory Dynamics with Friction.

Abstract

Evolution with energy dissipation can be used to obtain the ground state of a quantum-mechanical system. This dissipation is introduced in the quantum trajectory framework by adding an empirical friction force to the equations of motion for the trajectories, which, as an ensemble, represent a wave function. The quantum effects in dynamics are incorporated via the quantum force derived from the properties of this ensemble. For scalability to large systems, the quantum force is computed approximately yet with sufficient accuracy to describe the strongly anharmonic ground state of solid (4)He represented by a simulation cell of 180 atoms.