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Monte Carlo methods have been a tool of theoretical and computational scientists for many years. In particular, the invention and percolation of the algorithm of Metropolis, Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth, Teller, and Teller sparked a rapid growth of applications to classical statistical mechanics. Although proposals for treatment of quantum systems had been made even earlier, only a few serious calculations had heen carried out. Ruch calculations are generally more consuming of computer resources than for classical systems and no universal algorithm had--or indeed has yet-- emerged. However, with advances in techniques and in sheer computing power, Monte Carlo methods have been used with considerable success in treating quantum fluids and crystals, simple models of nuclear matter, and few-body nuclei. Research at several institutions suggest that they may offer a new approach to quantum chemistry, one that is independent of basis ann yet capable of chemical accuracy. That. Monte Carlo methods can attain the very great precision needed is itself a remarkable achievement. More recently, new interest in such methods has arisen in two new a~as. Particle theorists, in particular K. Wilson, have drawn attention to the rich analogy between quantum field theoty and statistical mechanics and to the merits of Monte Carlo calculations for lattice gauge theories. This has become a rapidly growing sub-field. A related development is associated with lattice problems in quantum physics, particularly with models of solid state systems. The~ is much ferment in the calculation of various one-dimensional problems such as the'Hubbard model.
List of contents
Droplets of 4He Atoms.- Maximum Overlap Jastrow Wave Function of the Lennard Jones Bose Fluid.- Optimization and the Many-Fermion Problem.- Droplets of 3He Atoms.- Random Walk in Fock Space.- A Review of Quantum Monte Carlo Methods and Results for Coulombic Systems.- Can Monte Carlo Methods Achieve Chemical Accuracy?.- Chemical Physics of Molecular Systems in Condensed Phases.- Study of an F Center in Molten KCl.- Path Integral Monte Carlo.- A Quantum Monte Carlo Method for the Heisenberg Spin System.- Monte Carlo Simulation of One Dimensional Quantum Systems.- Monte Carlo Calculation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Quantum Lattice Models.- Numerical Simulation of Quantum Lattice Systems: Electron-Electron and Electron-Phonon Interactions in One Dimension.- The Spectrum of Pure Gauge Theories.- Evaluation of Hadron Masses in Quantum Chromodynamics.- Some Applications of a New Stochastic Method in Lattice Theories.
About the author
Malvin H. Kalos is a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National laboratory. He received his PhD in Physics at the University of Illinois in 1952. After postdoctoral research at Illinois and Cornell, he joined the staff of United Nuclear Corporation. In 1964, he became a Senior Research Scientist, later Research Professor and then Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences,New York University. In 1989, he returned to Cornell as Professor of Physics and Director of the Theory Center. His research interests include Monte Carlo Methods and computational many-body physics. He is the recipient of the 1989 Feenberg Memorial Medal for advancement of many-body theories from first principles.
