Path integral quantum Monte Carlo method PIQMC

Carlo method (VQMC), the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method (DQMC), the Green s function quantum Monte Carlo method (GFQMC), and the path integral quantum Monte Carlo method (PIQMC). These methods are by their nature strongly related and each has its own peculiar advantages and disadvantages relative to the others. 

Figure 1 A family tree of quantum chemistry DFT, density functional theory QMC, quantum Monte Carlo RRV, Rayleigh-Ritz variational theory X-a, X-alpha method KS, Kohn-Sham approach LDA, BP, B3LYP, density functional approximations VQMC, variational QMC DQMC, diffusion QMC FNQMC, fixed-node QMC PIQMC, path integral QMC EQMC, exact QMC HF, Hartree-Fock EC, explicitly correlated functions P, perturbational MP2, MP4, Maller-Plesset perturbational Cl, configuration interaction MRCI, multireference Cl FCI, full Cl CC, CCSD(T), coupled-cluster approaches. Other acronyms are defined in the text.

The PIQMC method is the result of coupling of Feynman s path integral formulation of quantum mechanics with Monte Carlo sampling techniques to produce a method for finite temperature quantum systems. The calculations are not much more complicated than DQMC and produce a sum over all possible states occupied as for a Boltzmann distribution. In the limit of zero temperature... 

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