QUANTUM MONTE CARLO: NOT JUST FOR ENERGY LEVELS

Abstract

Quantum Monte Carlo and realistic interactions can provide well-motivated vertices and overlaps for DWBA analyses of reactions. Given an interaction in vaccum, there are several computational approaches to nuclear systems, as you have been hearing: No-core shell model with Lee-Suzuki or Bloch-Horowitz for Hamiltonian Coupled clusters with G-matrix interaction Density functional theory, granted an energy functional derived from the interaction Quantum Monte Carlo - Variational Monte Carlo Green's function Monte Carlo. The last two work directly with a bare interaction and bare operators and describe the wave function without expanding in basis functions, so they have rather different sets of advantages and disadvantages from the others. Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) is built on a sophisticated Ansatz for the wave function, built on shell model like structure modified by operator correlations. Green's function Monte Carlo (GFMC) uses an operator method to project the true ground state out of a reasonable guess wave function.