Quantum Monte Carlo Calculations of the Energy of the Relativistic Homogeneous Electron Gas

Abstract

The ground state energy of the unpolarized homogeneous electron gas at zero temperature is calculated within the density range ${r}_{s}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.1--10$, incorporating relativistic effects via first-order perturbation theory. Accurate nonrelativistic wave functions and variational and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo techniques are used to calculate the required expectation values.