A variational Monte Carlo approach for core excitations

We present a systematically improvable approach to core excitations in variational Monte Carlo. Building on recent work in excited-state-specific Monte Carlo, we show how a straightforward protocol, starting from a quantum chemistry guess, is able to capture core state's strong orbital relaxations, maintain accuracy in the near-nuclear region during these relaxations, and explicitly balance accuracy between ground and core excited states. In water, ammonia, and methane, which serve as prototypical representatives for oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon core states, respectively, this approach predicts core excitation energies within 0.3 eV of experiment and core excitation peak separations within 0.1 eV of experiment.