Variational Monte Carlo Calculations of 4He Adsorbed on Graphite

Abstract

We present the results of variational Monte Carlo calculations of the solid 4He monolayer adsorbed on a corrugated graphite substrate with the shadow wave function technique. We find that the solid monolayer at the commensurate density is tightly bound to the substrate and that the presence of corrugation localizes the Helium atoms in the direction parallel to the substrate around the sites of a triangular lattice where 1/3 of the adsorption sites of graphite are occupied. We have calculated the energy per particle, the density profile of the monolayer and the static structure factor. We have also studied the system in the presence of a defect (vacancy or interstitial) and we report the results for the one-body density matrix.