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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids
Published on: May 27, 2020
Alleviation of the Fermion-sign problem by optimization of many-body wave functions
C J Umrigar1, Julien Toulouse, Claudia Filippi
1Theory Center and Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
Abstract:
We present a simple, robust, and highly efficient method for optimizing all parameters of many-body wave functions in quantum Monte Carlo calculations, applicable to continuum systems and lattice models. Based on a strong zero-variance principle, diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix in the space spanned by the wave function and its derivatives determines the optimal parameters. It systematically reduces the fixed-node error, as demonstrated by the calculation of the binding energy of the small but challenging C(2) molecule to the experimental accuracy of 0.02 eV.
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