Green’s function Monte Carlo for few fermion problems

Abstract

The Green’s function Monte Carlo method used for obtaining exact solutions to the Schrödinger equation of boson systems is generalized to treat systems of several fermions. We show that when it is possible to select eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian based on physical symmetries, the GFMC method can be used to yield the lowest energy state of that symmetry. In particular, the lowest totally antisymmetric eigenfunction, the fermion ground state, can be obtained. Calculations on several two- and three-body model problems show the method to be computationally feasible for few-body systems.