A new look at correlations in atomic and molecular systems. I. Application of fermion monte carlo variational method

We are engaged in research directed toward the development of compact and accurate correlation functions for many-electron systems. Our computational tool is the variational method in which the many-electron integrals are calculated by Monte Carlo using the fermion Metropolis sampling algorithm. That is, a many-fermion system is simulated by sampling the square of a correlated antisymmetric wave function. The principal advantage of the method is that interelectronic distance r_ij may be included directly in the wave function without adding significant computational complexity. In addition, other quantities of physical and theoretical interest such as electron correlation functions and representations of Coulomb and Fermi “holes” are very easily obtained. Preliminary results are reported for He, H₂, and Li₂.