Quantum Monte Carlo With a *Stochastic Poisson Solver

"Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is an extremely powerful method to treat many-body systems. Usually QMC has been applied in cases where the interaction potential has a simple analytic form, like the 1/r Coulomb potential. However, in a complicated environment as in a semiconductor heterostructure, the evaluation of the interaction itself becomes a non-trivial problem. Obtaining the potential from any grid-based finite-difference method, for every walker and every step is unfeasible. We demonstrate an alternative approach of solving the Poisson equation by a classical Monte Carlo within the overall QMC scheme. We have developed a modified ""Walk On Spheres"" (WOS) algorithm using Green's function techniques, which can efficiently account for the interaction energy of walker configurations, typical of QMC algorithms. This stochastically obtained potential can be easily incorporated within popular QMC techniques like variational Monte Carlo (VMC) or diffusion Monte Carlo(DMC). We demonstrate the validity of this method by studying a simple problem, the polarization of a helium atom in the electric field of an infinite capacitor. Then we apply this method to calculate the singlet-triplet splitting in a realistic heterostructure device. We also outline some other prospective applications for spherical quantum dots where the dielectric mismatch becomes an important issue for the addition energy spectrum."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Das, Dyutiman

Contributors dc:contributor

• Martin, Richard M.

• Physics, Condensed Matter

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3198965

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80519