Semi-classical methods of statistical mechanics can incorporate essential quantum effects by using effective quantum potentials. An ideal Fermi gas interacting with an impurity is represented by a classical fluid with effective electron-electron and electron-impurity quantum potentials. The electron-impurity quantum potential is evaluated at weak coupling, leading to a generalization of the Kelbg potential to include both diffraction and degeneracy effects. The electron-electron quantum potential for exchange effects only is the same as that discussed earlier by others.
We consider quantum nonlinear systems with dissipation described within the Caldeira-Leggett model, i.e., by a nonlocal action in the path integral for the density matrix. Approximate classical-like formulas are derived in order to evaluate thermal averages of observables: the cases of linear and nonlinear dissipation are considered, and the framework is extended to the case of many degrees of freedom.
The approach to the calculation of quantum dynamical correlation functions is presented in the framework of the Mori theory. An unified treatment of classic and quantum dynamics is given in terms of Weyl representation of operators and holomorphic variables. The range of validity of an approximate molucular dynamics is discussed
Using density matrix renormalization group calculations, ground state properties of the spin-1 Heisenberg chain with exchange and quadratic single-ion anisotropies in an external field are studied, for special choices of the two kinds of anisotropies. In particular, the phase diagram includes antiferromagnetic, spin-liquid (or spin-flop), (10), and supersolid (or biconical) phases. Especially, new features of the spin-liquid and supersolid phases are discussed. Properties of the quantum chains are compared to those of corresponding classical spin chains.
We propose two efficient algorithms for configurational sampling of systems with rough energy landscape. The first one is a new method for the determination of the multicanonical weight factor. In this method a short replica-exchange simulation is performed and the multicanonical weight factor is obtained by the multiple-histogram reweighting techniques. The second one is a further extension of the first in which a replica-exchange multicanonical simulation is performed with a small number of replicas. These new algorithms are particularly useful for studying the protein folding problem.
The chemical potentials of multicomponent fluids are derived in terms of the pair correlation functions for arbitrary number of components, interaction potentials, and dimensionality. The formally exact result is particularized to hard-sphere mixtures with zero or positive nonadditivity. As a simple application, the chemical potentials of three-dimensional additive hard-sphere mixtures are derived from the Percus-Yevick theory and the associated equation of state is obtained. This Percus-Yevick chemical-route equation of state is shown to be more accurate than the virial equation of state. An interpolation between the chemical-potential and compressibility routes exhibits a better performance than the well-known Boublik-Mansoori-Carnahan-Starling-Leland equation of state.