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Calculating thermodynamics properties of quantum systems by a non-Markovian Monte Carlo procedure
Yanier Crespo1, Alessandro Laio, Giuseppe E Santoro
1International School for Advanced Studies, Via Beirut 2-4, I-34014 Trieste, Italy.
Abstract:
We present a history-dependent Monte Carlo scheme for the efficient calculation of the free energy of quantum systems inspired by Wang-Landau and metadynamics. In the two-dimensional quantum Ising model, chosen here for illustration, the accuracy of free energy, critical temperature, and specific heat is demonstrated as a function of simulation time and successfully compared with the best available approaches. The approach is based on a path integral formulation of the quantum problem and can be applied without modifications to quantum Hamiltonians of any level of complexity. The combination of high accuracy and performance with a much broader applicability is a major advance with respect to other available methods.
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