QMCPACK: Advances in the development, efficiency, and application of auxiliary field and real-space variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo.

We review recent advances in the capabilities of the open source ab initio Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) package QMCPACK and the workflow tool Nexus used for greater efficiency and reproducibility. The auxiliary field QMC (AFQMC) implementation has been greatly expanded to include k-point symmetries, tensor-hypercontraction, and accelerated graphical processing unit (GPU) support. These scaling and memory reductions greatly increase the number of orbitals that can practically be included in AFQMC calculations, increasing the accuracy. Advances in real space methods include techniques for accurate computation of bandgaps and for systematically improving the nodal surface of ground state wavefunctions. Results of these calculations can be used to validate application of more approximate electronic structure methods, including GW and density functional based techniques. To provide an improved foundation for these calculations, we utilize a new set of correlation-consistent effective core potentials (pseudopotentials) that are more accurate than previous sets; these can also be applied in quantum-chemical and other many-body applications, not only QMC. These advances increase the efficiency, accuracy, and range of properties that can be studied in both molecules and materials with QMC and QMCPACK.

Computation of Dynamic Polarizabilities and van der Waals Coefficients from Path-Integral Monte Carlo.

We demonstrate computation of total dynamic multipole polarizabilities using path-integral Monte Carlo method (PIMC). The PIMC approach enables accurate thermal and nonadiabatic mixing of electronic, rotational, and vibrational degrees of freedom. Therefore, we can study the thermal effects, or lack thereof, in the full multipole spectra of the chosen one- and two-electron systems: H, Ps, He, Ps2, H2, and HD+. We first compute multipole-multipole correlation functions up to octupole order in imaginary time. The real-domain spectral function is then obtained by analytical continuation with the maximum entropy method. In general, sharpness of the active spectra is limited, but the obtained off-resonant polarizabilities are in good agreement with the existing literature. Several weak and strong thermal effects are observed. Furthermore, the polarizabilities of Ps2 and some higher multipole and higher frequency data have not been published before. In addition, we compute isotropic dispersion coefficients C6, C8, and C10 between pairs of species using the simplified Casimir-Polder formulas.

QMCPACK: an open source ab initio quantum Monte Carlo package for the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids.

QMCPACK is an open source quantum Monte Carlo package for ab initio electronic structure calculations. It supports calculations of metallic and insulating solids, molecules, atoms, and some model Hamiltonians. Implemented real space quantum Monte Carlo algorithms include variational, diffusion, and reptation Monte Carlo. QMCPACK uses Slater-Jastrow type trial wavefunctions in conjunction with a sophisticated optimizer capable of optimizing tens of thousands of parameters. The orbital space auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo method is also implemented, enabling cross validation between different highly accurate methods. The code is specifically optimized for calculations with large numbers of electrons on the latest high performance computing architectures, including multicore central processing unit and graphical processing unit systems. We detail the program's capabilities, outline its structure, and give examples of its use in current research calculations. The package is available at http://qmcpack.org.