High-order Path Integral Monte Carlo methods for solving quantum dot problems

Abstract

The conventional second-order Path Integral Monte Carlo method is plagued with the sign problem in solving many-fermion systems. This is due to the large number of anti-symmetric free fermion propagators that are needed to extract the ground state wave function at large imaginary time. In this work, we show that optimized fourth-order Path Integral Monte Carlo methods, which use no more than 5 free-fermion propagators, can yield accurate quantum dot energies for up to 20 polarized electrons with the use of the Hamiltonian energy estimator.