Differential diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method: determination of potential energy surfaces of molecules

A differential approach for self-optimizing diffusion Monte Carlo calculation was proposed in this paper, which is a new algorithm combining three techniques such as optimizing, diffusion and correlation sampling. This method can be used to directly compute the energy differential between two systems in the diffusion process, making the statistical error of calculation be reduced to order of 10-5 hartree, and recover about more than 80% of the correlation energy. We employed this approach to set up a potential energy surface of a molecule, used a "rigid move" model, and utilized Jacobi transformation to make energy calculation for two configurations of a molecule having good positive correlation. So, an accurate energy differential could be obtained, and the potential energy surface with good quality can be depicted. In calculation, a technique called "post-equilibrium remaining sample was set up firstly, which can save about 50% of computation expense. This novel algorithm was used to study the potenti     

A ground state potential energy surface for H2 using Monte Carlo methods

Using variational Monte Carlo and a simple explicitly correlated wave function we have computed the Born-Oppenheimer energy of the H2 ground state (X 1Sigmag+) at 24 internuclear distances. We have also calculated the diagonal correction to the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and the lowest-order relativistic corrections at each distance using variational Monte Carlo techniques. The nonadiabatic values are evaluated from numerical derivatives of the wave function with respect to the nuclear coordinates. With this potential energy surface we have computed several of the lowest vibrational-rotational energies for this system. Our results are in good agreement with the best values found in the literature.     

Efficiency considerations in the construction of interpolated potential energy surfaces for the calculation of quantum observables by diffusion Monte Carlo

A modified Shepard interpolation scheme is used to construct global potential energy surfaces (PES) in order to calculate quantum observables--vibrationally averaged internal coordinates, fully anharmonic zero-point energies and nuclear radial distribution functions--for a prototypical loosely bound molecular system, the water dimer. The efficiency of PES construction is examined with respect to (a) the method used to sample configurational space, (b) the method used to choose which points to add to the PES data set, and (c) the use of either a one- or two-part weight function. The most efficient method for constructing the PES is found to require a quantum sampling regime, a combination of both h-weight and rms methods for choosing data points and use of the two-part weight function in the interpolation. Using this regime, the quantum diffusion Monte Carlo zero-point energy converges to the exact result within addition of 50 data points. The vibrationally averaged O-O distance and O-O radial distribution function, however, converge more slowly and require addition of over 500 data points. The methods presented here are expected to be applicable to both other loosely bound complexes as well as tightly bound molecular species. When combined with high quality ab initio calculations, these methods should be able to accurately characterize the PES of such species.     

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the potential energy curve of the helium dimer

We report results of two quantum Monte Carlo methods -- variational Monte Carlo and diffusion Monte Carlo -- on the potential energy curve of the helium dimer. In contrast to previous quantum Monte Carlo calculations on this system, we have employed trial wave functions of the Slater-Jastrow form and used the fixed node approximation for the fermion nodal surface. We find both methods to be in excellent agreement with the best theoretical results at short range. In addition, the diffusion Monte Carlo results give very good agreement across the whole potential energy curve, while the Slater-Jastrow wave function fails to bind the dimer at all.     

Polyion adsorption onto catanionic surfaces. A Monte Carlo study

The adsorption of a single and negatively charged polyion with varying flexibility onto a surface carrying both negative and positive charges representing a charged membrane surface has been investigated by using a simple model employing Monte Carlo simulations. The polyion was represented by a sequence of negatively charged hard spheres connected with harmonic bonds. The charged surface groups were also represented by charged hard spheres, and they were positioned on a hard surface slightly protruding into the solution. The surface charges were either frozen in a liquidlike structure or laterally mobile. With a large excess of positive surface charges, the classical picture of a strongly adsorbed polyion with an extended and flat configuration emerged. However, adsorption also appeared at a net neutral surface or at a weakly negatively charged surface, and at these conditions the adsorption was stronger with a flexible polyion as compared to a semiflexible one, two features not appearing in simpler models containing homogeneously charged surfaces. The presence of charged surface patches (frozen surface charges) and the ability of polarization of the surface charges (mobile surface charges) are the main reasons for the enhanced adsorption. The stronger adsorption with the flexible chain is caused by its greater ability to spatially correlate with the surface charges.     

A sparse algorithm for the evaluation of the local energy in quantum Monte Carlo

A new algorithm is presented for the sparse representation and evaluation of Slater determinants in the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. The approach, combined with the use of localized orbitals in a Slater-type orbital basis set, significantly extends the size molecule that can be treated with the QMC method. Application of the algorithm to systems containing up to 390 electrons confirms that the cost of evaluating the Slater determinant scales linearly with system size.     

Communication: Monte Carlo calculation of the exchange energy

In recent generalized Kohn-Sham (GKS) schemes for density functional theory (DFT) Hartree-Fock type exchange is important. In plane waves and grid approaches the high cost of exchange energy calculations makes these GKS considerably more expensive than Kohn-Sham DFT calculations. We develop a stochastic approach for speeding up the calculation of exchange for large systems. We show that stochastic error per particle does not grow and can even decrease with system size (at a given number of iterations). We discuss several alternative approaches and explain how these ideas can be included in the GKS framework.     

A scalable parallel Monte Carlo method for free energy simulations of molecular systems

We present a method of parallelizing flat histogram Monte Carlo simulations, which give the free energy of a molecular system as an output. In the serial version, a constant probability distribution, as a function of any system parameter, is calculated by updating an external potential that is added to the system Hamiltonian. This external potential is related to the free energy. In the parallel implementation, the simulation is distributed on to different processors. With regular intervals the modifying potential is summed over all processors and distributed back to every processor, thus spreading the information of which parts of parameter space have been explored. This implementation is shown to decrease the execution time linearly with added number of processors.     

Solvated potential energy surfaces for MePC

A conformational study of methylphosphocholine (MePC) was performed from a conformational map calculated considering the dihedral angles that most affected the energy of the system. This conformational map was obtained from interpolations of energy values found from calculations that took into account the presence of solvent through a dielectric continuum approach. We used a quantum–mechanical method based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT) and the 6-31G(d,p) basis set. Conformational samplings were performed in stability regions and the most stable conformers were identified. Comparisons of samplings in solvated and non-solvated conformational maps were performed, and although very different from each other, they furnish equivalent final conformational sets. Both the sets reproduced satisfactorily the experimental shift observed for the vibrational modes of –[P(O₂)]⁻– and –CH₂– methylene groups of MePC when the system was solvated.     

Monte Carlo method for computing density of states and quench probability of potential energy and enthalpy landscapes

The thermodynamics and kinetics of a many-body system can be described in terms of a potential energy landscape in multidimensional configuration space. The partition function of such a landscape can be written in terms of a density of states, which can be computed using a variety of Monte Carlo techniques. In this paper, a new self-consistent Monte Carlo method for computing density of states is described that uses importance sampling and a multiplicative update factor to achieve rapid convergence. The technique is then applied to compute the equilibrium quench probability of the various inherent structures (minima) in the landscape. The quench probability depends on both the potential energy of the inherent structure and the volume of its corresponding basin in configuration space. Finally, the methodology is extended to the isothermal-isobaric ensemble in order to compute inherent structure quench probabilities in an enthalpy landscape.     

The double many-body expansion of potential energy surfaces from interacting 2S atoms

The double many-body expansion (DMBE ) method has been applied to the many-valued ground-state potential energy surfaces from three and four interacting ²S atoms. New forms are suggested where the degeneracy manifold of the two Riemann sheets of the potential surface can be made identical to that predicted from the London equation that is correct to first-order. Considerable flexibility can be introduced through adjustable coefficients to fit ab initio data, whereas the potential energy terms can be chosen to maintain the correct analytic properties at the conical intersection. Hence, the new forms may be used on the extrapolation of the potential energy from the lowest- to the upper-Riemann sheets. Long-range effects are semiempirically described from the general formalism of the DMBE method.     

A hierarchical family of three-dimensional potential energy surfaces for He-CO

A hierarchical family of five three-dimensional potential energy surfaces has been developed for the benchmark He-CO system. Four surfaces were obtained at the coupled cluster singles and doubles level of theory with a perturbational estimate of triple excitations, CCSD(T), and range in quality from the doubly augmented double-zeta basis set to the complete basis set (CBS) limit. The fifth corresponds to an approximate CCSDT/CBS surface (CCSD with iterative triples/CBS, denoted CBS+corr). The CBS limit results were obtained by pointwise basis set extrapolations of the individual counterpoise-corrected interaction energies. For each surface, over 1000 interaction energies were accurately interpolated using a reproducing kernel Hilbert space approach with an R-6+R-7 asymptotic form. In each case, both three-dimensional and effective two-dimensional surfaces were developed. In standard Jacobi coordinates, the final CBS+corr surface has a global minimum at rCO=2.1322a0,R=6.418a0, and gamma=70.84 degrees with a well depth of -22.34 cm-1. The other four surfaces have well depths ranging from -14.83 cm-1 [CCSD(T)/d-aug-cc-pVDZ] to -22.02 cm-1 [CCSD(T)/CBS]. For each of these surfaces the infrared spectrum has been accurately calculated and compared to experiment, as well as to previous theoretical and empirical surfaces. The final CBS+corr surface exhibits root-mean-square and maximum errors compared to experiment (4He) of just 0.03 and 0.04 cm-1, respectively, for all 42 transitions and is the most accurate ab initio surface to date for this system. Other quantities investigated include the interaction second virial coefficient, the integral cross sections, and thermal rate coefficients for rotational relaxation of CO by He, and rate coefficients for CO vibrational relaxation by He. All the observable quantities showed a smooth convergence with respect to the quality of the underlying interaction surface.     

Mapping potential energy surfaces

A recently proposed dynamical method [A. Laio and M. Parrinello, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 12562 (2002)] allows us to globally sample the free energy surface. This approach uses a coarse-grained non-Markovian dynamics to bias microscopic atomic trajectories. After a sufficiently long simulation time, the global free energy surface can be reconstructed from the non-Markovian dynamics. Here we apply this scheme to study the T=0 free energy surface, i.e., the potential energy surface in coarse-grained space. We show that the accuracy of the reconstructed potential energy surface can be dramatically improved by a simple postprocessing procedure with only minor computational overhead. We illustrate this approach by conducting conformational analysis on a small organic molecule, demonstrating its superiority over traditional unbiased approaches in sampling potential energy surfaces in coarse-grained space.     

Valence energy in variational Monte Carlo: CuH dissociation energy

We show how to estimate the dissociation energy of CuH using the variational Monte Carlo method. The techniques involved are (i) an all-electron approach, (ii) a diffusion-only Metroplis algorithm which is well-suited for sampling the nodal regions properly, and (iii) a core-valence partitioning scheme such that the dissociation energy is estimated from the valence energies of CuH and Cu only. This approach avoids several of the approximations inherent in pseudopotential methods. Using relatively crude wave functions, we obtain an estimate of the dissociation energy and dipole moment with an accuracy on par with much more elaborate calculations in the literature. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the dimerization energy of borane

Accurate thermodynamic data are required to improve the performance of chemical hydrides that are potential hydrogen storage materials. Boron compounds are among the most interesting candidates. However, different experimental measurements of the borane dimerization energy resulted in a rather wide range (-34.3 to -39.1) ± 2 kcal/mol. Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) simulations usually recover more than 95% of the correlation energy, so energy differences rely less on error cancellation than other methods. DMC energies of BH(3), B(2)H(6), BH(3)CO, CO, and BH(2)(+) allowed us to predict the borane dimerization energy, both via the direct process and indirect processes such as the dissociation of BH(3)CO. Our D(e) = -43.12(8) kcal/mol, corrected for the zero point energy evaluated by considering the anharmonic contributions, results in a borane dimerization energy of -36.59(8) kcal/mol. The process via the dissociation of BH(3)CO gives -34.5(2) kcal/mol. Overall, our values suggest a slightly less D(e) than the most recent W4 estimate D(e) = -44.47 kcal/mol [A. Karton and J. M. L. Martin, J. Phys. Chem. A 111, 5936 (2007)]. Our results show that reliable thermochemical data for boranes can be predicted by fixed node (FN)-DMC calculations.     

A useful mapping of triatomic potential energy surfaces

We present in this paper a mapping of triatomic three-dimensional Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surfaces V for which all arrangement channels are represented evenhandedly. This representation is very useful for visualizing the geometrical and dynamical properties of such surfaces.     

Monte Carlo study of surfactant adsorption on heterogeneous solid surfaces

The equilibrium between free surfactant molecules in aqueous solution and adsorbed layers on structured solid surfaces is investigated by lattice Monte Carlo simulation. The solid surfaces are composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface regions. The structures of the surfactant adsorbate above isolated surface domains and domains arranged in a checkerboard-like pattern are characterized. At the domain boundary, the adsorption layers display a different behavior for hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface domains. For the checkerboard-like surfaces, additional adsorption takes place at the boundaries between surface domains.     

Kinetic Monte Carlo study of nucleation processes on patterned surfaces

The properties of template-directed nucleation are studied in the transition region where full nucleation control is lost and additional nucleation beyond the prepatterned structure is observed. To get deeper insight into the microscopic mechanisms, Monte Carlo simulations were performed. In this context, the previously used continuous algorithm [F. Kalischewski, J. Zhu, and A. Heuer, Phys. Rev. B 77, 155401, (2008)] was replaced by a discrete one to reduce simulation time and to allow more detailed calculations. The applied method is based on the assumption that the molecules on the surface occupy the sites of a simple fcc lattice. It is shown that a careful mapping of the continuous Monte Carlo technique onto the discrete algorithm leads to a good reproduction of the former results by means of the latter method. Furthermore, the new method facilitates the calculation of the spatial distribution of nuclei on the surface. This provides a detailed comparison with experimental data.     

Stochastic potential switching algorithm for Monte Carlo simulations of complex systems

This paper describes a new Monte Carlo method based on a novel stochastic potential switching algorithm. This algorithm enables the equilibrium properties of a system with potential V to be computed using a Monte Carlo simulation for a system with a possibly less complex stochastically altered potential V. By proper choices of the stochastic switching and transition probabilities, it is shown that detailed balance can be strictly maintained with respect to the original potential V. The validity of the method is illustrated with a simple one-dimensional example. The method is then generalized to multidimensional systems with any additive potential, providing a framework for the design of more efficient algorithms to simulate complex systems. A near-critical Lennard-Jones fluid with more than 20,000 particles is used to illustrate the method. The new algorithm produced a much smaller dynamic scaling exponent compared to the Metropolis method and improved sampling efficiency by over an order of magnitude.     

Tests of Monte Carlo perturbation theory for the free energy of liquid copper

Monte Carlo perturbation theory, in which terms in the thermodynamic perturbation series are evaluated by Monte Carlo averaging, has potentially large advantages in efficiency for calculating free energies of liquids from ab initio potential surfaces. In order to test the accuracy of perturbation theory for liquid metals, a series of calculations has been done on liquid copper, modeled by an embedded atom potential. A simple 1/r(12) pair potential is used as the reference system. The free energy is calculated to third order in perturbation theory, and the results are compared to an exact formula. It is found that for optimal reference potential parameters, second order perturbation theory is essentially exact. Second and third order theories give accurate results for significantly nonoptimal reference parameters. The relation between perturbation theory and reweighting is discussed, and an approximate formula is derived that shows an exponential dependence of the efficiency of reweighting on the second order free energy correction. Finally, techniques for application to ab initio potentials are discussed. It is shown that with samples of 100 configurations, it is possible to obtain accuracy and precision at the level of approximately 1 meV/atom.