The variational-relaxation algorithm for finding quantum bound states

Abstract

I describe a simple algorithm for numerically finding the ground state and low-lying excited states of a quantum system. The algorithm is an adaptation of the relaxation method for solving Poisson's equation, and is fundamentally based on the variational principle. It is especially useful for two-dimensional systems with nonseparable potentials, for which simpler techniques are inapplicable yet the computation time is minimal.