Measuring free energy in parallel tempering Monte Carlo

Abstract

An efficient approach of measuring the absolute free energy in parallel tempering Monte Carlo using the exponential averaging method is discussed and the results are compared with those of population annealing Monte Carlo using the three-dimensional Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass model as benchmark tests. Numerical results show that parallel tempering, even though uses a much less number of temperatures than population annealing, can nevertheless equally efficiently measure the absolute free energy by simulating each temperature for longer times.