Perturbative Removal of a Sign Problem

Abstract

This paper presents a method for alleviating sign problems in lattice path integrals, including those associated with finite fermion density in relativistic systems. The method makes use of information gained from some systematic expansion -- such as perturbation theory -- in order to accelerate the Monte Carlo. The method is exact, in the sense that no approximation to the lattice path integral is introduced. Thanks to the underlying systematic expansion, the method is systematically improvable, so that an arbitrary reduction in the sign problem can in principle be obtained. The Thirring model (in 0 + 1 and 1 + 1 dimensions) is used to demonstrate the ability of this method to reduce the finite-density sign problem.