No Arabic abstract
The Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo method has been applied to simulate droplets of 7 and 8 neutrons. Results for realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions, which include tensor, spin--orbit and three--body forces, plus a standard one--body confining potential, have been compared with analogous calculations obtained with Greens Function Monte Carlo methods. We have studied the dependence of the binding energy, the one--body density and the spin--orbit splittings of $^7n$ on the depth of the confining potential. The results obtained show an overall agreement between the two quantum Monte Carlo methods, although there persist differences in the evaluation of spin--orbit forces, as previously indicated by bulk neutron matter calculations. Energy density functional models, largely used in astrophysical applications, seem to provide results significantly different from those of quantum simulations. Given its scaling behavior in the number of nucleons, the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo method seems to be one of the best candidate to perform {sl ab initio} calculations on neutron rich nuclei.
We present variational Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron matter equation of state using chiral nuclear forces. The ground-state wavefunction of neutron matter, containing non-perturbative many-body correlations, is obtained from auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations of up to about 340 neutrons interacting on a 10^3 discretized lattice. The evolution Hamiltonian is chosen to be attractive and spin-independent in order to avoid the fermion sign problem and is constructed to best reproduce broad features of the chiral nuclear force. This is facilitated by choosing a lattice spacing of 1.5 fm, corresponding to a momentum-space cutoff of Lambda = 414 MeV/c, a resolution scale at which strongly repulsive features of nuclear two-body forces are suppressed. Differences between the evolution potential and the full chiral nuclear interaction (Entem and Machleidt Lambda = 414 MeV) are then treated perturbatively. Our results for the equation of state are compared to previous quantum Monte Carlo simulations which employed chiral two-body forces at next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO). In addition we include the effects of three-body forces at N2LO, which provide important repulsion at densities higher than 0.02 fm^-3, as well as two-body forces at N3LO.
Zirconia (zirconium dioxide) and hafnia (hafnium dioxide) are binary oxides used in a range of applications. Because zirconium and hafnium are chemically equivalent, they have three similar polymorphs, and it is important to understand the properties and energetics of these polymorphs. However, while density functional theory calculations can get the correct energetic ordering, the energy differences between polymorphs depend very much on the specific density functional theory approach, as do other quantities such as lattice constants and bulk modulus. We have used highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo simulations to model the three zirconia and hafnia polymorphs. We compare our results for structural parameters, bulk modulus, and cohesive energy with results obtained from density functional theory calculations. We also discuss comparisons of our results with existing experimental data, in particular for structural parameters where extrapolation to zero temperature can be attempted. We hope our results of structural parameters as well as for cohesive energy and bulk modulus can serve as benchmarks for density-functional theory based calculations and as a guidance for future experiments.
We analyze recently-measured total reaction cross sections for 24-38Mg isotopes incident on 12C targets at 240 MeV/nucleon by using the folding model and antisymmetrized molecular dynamics(AMD). The folding model well reproduces the measured reaction cross sections, when the projectile densities are evaluated by the deformed Woods-Saxon (def-WS) model with AMD deformation. Matter radii of 24-38Mg are then deduced from the measured reaction cross sections by fine-tuning the parameters of the def-WS model. The deduced matter radii are largely enhanced by nuclear deformation. Fully-microscopic AMD calculations with no free parameter well reproduce the deduced matter radii for 24-36Mg, but still considerably underestimate them for 37,38Mg. The large matter radii suggest that 37,38Mg are candidates for deformed halo nucleus. AMD also reproduces other existing measured ground-state properties (spin-parity, total binding energy, and one-neutron separation energy) of Mg isotopes. Neutron-number (N) dependence of deformation parameter is predicted by AMD. Large deformation is seen from 31Mg with N = 19 to a drip-line nucleus 40Mg with N = 28, indicating that both the N = 20 and 28 magicities disappear. N dependence of neutron skin thickness is also predicted by AMD.
Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods are some of the most accurate methods for simulating correlated electronic systems. We investigate the compatibility, strengths and weaknesses of two such methods, namely, diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC). The multi-determinant trial wave functions employed in both approaches are generated using the configuration interaction using a perturbative selection made iteratively (CIPSI) technique. Complete basis set full configuration interaction (CBS-FCI) energies estimated with CIPSI are used as a reference in this comparative study between DMC and AFQMC. By focusing on a set of canonical finite size solid state systems, we show that both QMC methods can be made to systematically converge towards the same energy once basis set effects and systematic biases have been removed. AFQMC shows a much smaller dependence on the trial wavefunction than DMC while simultaneously exhibiting a much larger basis set dependence. We outline some of the remaining challenges and opportunities for improving these approaches.
Spin crossover molecules have recently emerged as a family of compounds potentially useful for implementing molecular spintronics devices. The calculations of the electronic properties of such molecules is a formidable theoretical challenge as one has to describe the spin ground state of a transition metal as the legand field changes. The problem is dominated by the interplay between strong electron correlation at the transition metal site and charge delocalization over the ligands, and thus it fits into a class of problems where density functional theory may be inadequate. Furthermore, the crossover activity is extremely sensitive to environmental conditions, which are difficult to fully characterize. Here we discuss the phase transition of a prototypical spin crossover molecule as obtained with diffusion Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the ground state changes depending on whether the molecule is in the gas or in the solid phase. As our calculation provides a solid benchmark for the theory we then assess the performances of density functional theory. We find that the low spin state is always over-stabilized, not only by the (semi-)local functionals, but even by the most commonly used hybrids (such as B3LYP and PBE0). We then propose that reliable results can be obtained by using hybrid functionals containing about 50% of exact-exchange.