a Quantum Monte Carlo Study of Pseudopotentials and Metal Surfaces.
Abstract
Quantum Monte Carlo has been established as a powerful computational tool to study quantum many-body systems. It has been successfully applied to small atoms and molecules, the electron gas, hydrogen at high pressures, silicon and carbon clusters, solid silicon and jellium surfaces. The importance of quantum Monte Carlo for these systems is the very accurate treatment of electronic correlation and in the case of hydrogen the direct treatment of the zero-point motion of protons. In this thesis we propose a method of generating pseudopotentials from correlated wave functions, based on the properties of the one-body density matrix and its natural orbitals. We used quantum Monte Carlo techniques to investigate the influence of electronic correlation in obtaining the one-body density matrix and natural orbitals of lithium, carbon and neon, and their influence in the generation of pseudopotentials. In the second part of this work we applied quantum Monte Carlo methods for the study of highly inhomogeneous systems, namely metal surfaces. We did a study of jellium surfaces at a range of densities representative of metals in Nature. In this work we were concerned to learn more about the nature of the wave function and correlation effects in such systems. Such understanding is very important in the construction of wave functions for real metals and in the development and improvement of approximations used in density functional theory. We present results for electronic densities, pair correlation functions and surfaces energies. The results obtained in such calculations provide important benchmarks for other methods.
- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- January 1995
- Bibcode:
- 1995PhDT........83A
- Keywords:
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- Physics: Condensed Matter; Physics: Atomic; Physics: Molecular; Chemistry: Physical