Computing quantum correlation functions by Importance Sampling method based on path integrals

Abstract

An importance sampling method based on Generalized Feynman-Kac method has been used to calculate the mean values of quantum observables from quantum correlation functions for many body systems both at zero and finite temperature. Specifically, the expectation of $\langle r_i^n\rangle$, $\langle r_{ij}^n\rangle$, $\langle r_i^{-n}\rangle$ and $\langle r_{ij}^{-n}\rangle$ for the ground state of the lithium and beryllium and the density matrix, the partition function, the internal energy and the specific heat of a system of quantum harmonic oscillators are computed, in good agreement with the best nonrelativistic values for these quantities. Although the initial results are encouarging, more experimentation will be needed to improve the other existing numerical results beyond chemical accuracies specially for the last two properties for lithium and beryllium. Also more work needs to be done to improve the trial functions for finite temperature calculations.