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Main Authors: Bernheimer, Liam, Atanasova, Hristiana, Cohen, Guy
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06577
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author Bernheimer, Liam
Atanasova, Hristiana
Cohen, Guy
author_facet Bernheimer, Liam
Atanasova, Hristiana
Cohen, Guy
contents Describing the ground states of continuous, real-space quantum many-body systems, like atoms and molecules, is a significant computational challenge with applications throughout the physical sciences. Recent progress was made by variational methods based on machine learning (ML) ansatzes. However, since these approaches are based on energy minimization, ansatzes must be twice differentiable. This (a) precludes the use of many powerful classes of ML models; and (b) makes the enforcement of bosonic, fermionic, and other symmetries costly. Furthermore, (c) the optimization procedure is often unstable unless it is done by imaginary time propagation, which is often impractically expensive in modern ML models with many parameters. The stochastic representation of wavefunctions (SRW), introduced in Nat Commun 14, 3601 (2023), is a recent approach to overcoming (c). SRW enables imaginary time propagation at scale, and makes some headway towards the solution of problem (b), but remains limited by problem (a). Here, we argue that combining SRW with path integral techniques leads to a new formulation that overcomes all three problems simultaneously. As a demonstration, we apply the approach to generalized ``Hooke's atoms'': interacting particles in harmonic wells. We benchmark our results against state-of-the-art data where possible, and use it to investigate the crossover between the Fermi liquid and the Wigner molecule within closed-shell systems. Our results shed new light on the competition between interaction-driven symmetry breaking and kinetic-energy-driven delocalization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_06577
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Determinant- and Derivative-Free Quantum Monte Carlo Within the Stochastic Representation of Wavefunctions
Bernheimer, Liam
Atanasova, Hristiana
Cohen, Guy
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Quantum Physics
Describing the ground states of continuous, real-space quantum many-body systems, like atoms and molecules, is a significant computational challenge with applications throughout the physical sciences. Recent progress was made by variational methods based on machine learning (ML) ansatzes. However, since these approaches are based on energy minimization, ansatzes must be twice differentiable. This (a) precludes the use of many powerful classes of ML models; and (b) makes the enforcement of bosonic, fermionic, and other symmetries costly. Furthermore, (c) the optimization procedure is often unstable unless it is done by imaginary time propagation, which is often impractically expensive in modern ML models with many parameters. The stochastic representation of wavefunctions (SRW), introduced in Nat Commun 14, 3601 (2023), is a recent approach to overcoming (c). SRW enables imaginary time propagation at scale, and makes some headway towards the solution of problem (b), but remains limited by problem (a). Here, we argue that combining SRW with path integral techniques leads to a new formulation that overcomes all three problems simultaneously. As a demonstration, we apply the approach to generalized ``Hooke's atoms'': interacting particles in harmonic wells. We benchmark our results against state-of-the-art data where possible, and use it to investigate the crossover between the Fermi liquid and the Wigner molecule within closed-shell systems. Our results shed new light on the competition between interaction-driven symmetry breaking and kinetic-energy-driven delocalization.
title Determinant- and Derivative-Free Quantum Monte Carlo Within the Stochastic Representation of Wavefunctions
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06577