An Introduction to Quantum Monte Carlo Methods (Iop Concise Physics)

Monte Carlo methods have been very prominent in computer simulation of various systems in physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science. This book focuses on the discussion and path-integral quantum Monte Carlo methods in many-body physics and provides a concise but complete introduction to the Metropolis algorithm and its applications in these two techniques. To explore the schemes in clarity, several quantum many-body systems are analysed and studied in detail. The book includes exercises to help digest the materials covered. It can be used as a tutorial to learn the discussion and path-integral Monte Carlo or a recipe for developing new research in the reader's own area. Two complete Java programs, one for the discussion Monte Carlo of 4^He clusters on a graphite surface and the other for the path-integral Monte Carlo of cold atoms in a potential trap, are ready for download and adoption.

Tao Pang is Professor of Physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Following his higher education at Fudan University, one of the most prestigious institutions in China, he obtained his PhD in condensed matter theory from the University of Minnesota in 1989. He then spent two years as a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the UNLV physics faculty in the fall of 1991. He has been Professor of Physics at UNLV since 2002. His main areas of research include condensed matter theory and computational physics.