QMCPACK: an open source ab initio quantum Monte Carlo package for the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids.

QMCPACK is an open source quantum Monte Carlo package for ab initio electronic structure calculations. It supports calculations of metallic and insulating solids, molecules, atoms, and some model Hamiltonians. Implemented real space quantum Monte Carlo algorithms include variational, diffusion, and reptation Monte Carlo.

The transition to the metallic state in low density hydrogen.

Solid atomic hydrogen is one of the simplest systems to undergo a metal-insulator transition. Near the transition, the electronic degrees of freedom become strongly correlated and their description provides a difficult challenge for theoretical methods. As a result, the order and density of the phase transition are still subject to debate.

Molecular to atomic phase transition in hydrogen under high pressure.

The metallization of high-pressure hydrogen, together with the associated molecular to atomic transition, is one of the most important problems in the field of high-pressure physics. It is also currently a matter of intense debate due to the existence of conflicting experimental reports on the observation of metallic hydrogen on a diamond-anvil cell. Theoretical calculations have typically relied on a mean-field description of electronic correlation through density functional theory, a theory with well-known limitations in the description of metal-insulator transitions.

Quantum Monte Carlo Benchmark of Exchange-Correlation Functionals for Bulk Water.

The accurate description of the thermodynamic and dynamical properties of liquid water from first-principles is a very important challenge to the theoretical community. This represents not only a critical test of the predictive capabilities of first-principles methods, but it will also shed light into the microscopic properties of such an important substance. Density Functional Theory, the main workhorse in the field of first-principles methods, has been so far unable to properly describe water and its unusual properties in the liquid state.

Multideterminant Wave Functions in Quantum Monte Carlo.

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods have received considerable attention over past decades due to their great promise for providing a direct solution to the many-body Schrodinger equation in electronic systems. Thanks to their low scaling with the number of particles, QMC methods present a compelling competitive alternative for the accurate study of large molecular systems and solid state calculations. In spite of such promise, the method has not permeated the quantum chemistry community broadly, mainly because of the fixed-node error, which can be large and whose control is difficult.

Computing the energy of a water molecule using multideterminants: a simple, efficient algorithm.

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods such as variational Monte Carlo and fixed node diffusion Monte Carlo depend heavily on the quality of the trial wave function. Although Slater-Jastrow wave functions are the most commonly used variational ansatz in electronic structure, more sophisticated wave functions are critical to ascertaining new physics. One such wave function is the multi-Slater-Jastrow wave function which consists of a Jastrow function multiplied by the sum of Slater determinants.

Momentum distribution of the homogeneous electron gas.

We calculate the off-diagonal density matrix of the homogeneous electron gas at zero temperature using unbiased reptation Monte Carlo calculations for various densities and extrapolate the momentum distribution and the kinetic and potential energies to the thermodynamic limit. Our results on the renormalization factor allow us to validate approximate G0W0 calculations concerning quasiparticle properties over a broad density region (1≤r(s)≲10) and show that, near the Fermi surface, vertex corrections and self-consistency aspects almost cancel each other out.

Momentum distribution and renormalization factor in sodium and the electron gas.

We present experimental and theoretical results on the momentum distribution and the quasiparticle renormalization factor in sodium. From an x-ray Compton-profile measurement of the valence-electron-momentum density, we derive its discontinuity at the Fermi wave vector. This yields an accurate measure of the renormalization factor that we compare with quantum Monte Carlo and G0W0 calculations performed both on crystalline sodium and on the homogeneous electron gas.