1998/04/27 by M. P. Nightingale, Nightingale, M. P., C. J. Umrigar +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed Matter (cond-mat) #FOS: Physical sciences #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9804288
openalex publication_date 1998/04/27 · arxiv created 1998/08/03 · arxiv updated 2011/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this review we discuss, from a unified point of view, a variety of Monte Carlo methods used to solve eigenvalue problems in statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics. Although the applications of these methods differ widely, the underlying mathematics is quite similar in that they are stochastic implementations of the power method. In all cases, optimized trial states can be used to reduce the errors of Monte Carlo estimates.