Improved methods for Feynman path integral calculations and their application to calculate converged vibrational–rotational partition functions, free energies, enthalpies, entropies, and heat capacities for methane

Real Space Triplets in Quantum Condensed Matter: Numerical Experiments Using Path Integrals, Closures, and Hard Spheres

Path integral Monte Carlo and closure computations are utilized to study real space triplet correlations in the quantum hard-sphere system. The conditions cover from the normal fluid phase to the solid phases face-centered cubic (FCC) and cI16 (de Broglie wavelengths , densities ). The focus is on the equilateral and isosceles features of the path-integral centroid and instantaneous structures. Complementary calculations of the associated pair structures are also carried out to strengthen structural identifications and facilitate closure evaluations. The three closures employed are Kirkwood superposition, Jackson-Feenberg convolution, and their average (AV3). A large quantity of new data are reported, and conclusions are drawn regarding (i) the remarkable performance of AV3 for the centroid and instantaneous correlations, (ii) the correspondences between the fluid and FCC salient features on the coexistence line, and (iii) the most conspicuous differences between FCC and cI16 at the pair and the triplet levels at moderately high densities (. This research is expected to provide low-temperature insights useful for the future related studies of properties of real systems (e.g., helium, alkali metals, and general colloidal systems).

Direct Computation of the Quantum Partition Function by Path-Integral Nested Sampling

In the present work we introduce a computational approach to the absolute rovibrational quantum partition function using the path-integral formalism of quantum mechanics in combination with the nested sampling technique. The numerical applicability of path-integral nested sampling is demonstrated for small molecules of spectroscopic interest. The computational cost of the method is determined by the evaluation time of a point on the potential energy surface (PES). For efficient PES implementations, the path-integral nested sampling method can be a viable alternative to the direct-Boltzmann-summation technique of variationally computed rovibrational energies, especially for medium-sized molecules and at elevated temperatures.

Path-integral and Ornstein-Zernike study of quantum fluid structures on the crystallization line

Liquid neon, liquid para-hydrogen, and the quantum hard-sphere fluid are studied with path integral Monte Carlo simulations and the Ornstein-Zernike pair equation on their respective crystallization lines. The results cover the whole sets of structures in the r-space and the k-space and, for completeness, the internal energies, pressures and isothermal compressibilities. Comparison with experiment is made wherever possible, and the possibilities of establishing k-space criteria for quantum crystallization based on the path-integral centroids are discussed. In this regard, the results show that the centroid structure factor contains two significant parameters related to its main peak features (amplitude and shape) that can be useful to characterize freezing.

A whole-path importance-sampling scheme for Feynman path integral calculations of absolute partition functions and free energies

Using Feynman path integrals, a molecular partition function can be written as a double integral with the inner integral involving all closed paths centered at a given molecular configuration, and the outer integral involving all possible molecular configurations. In previous work employing Monte Carlo methods to evaluate such partition functions, we presented schemes for importance sampling and stratification in the molecular configurations that constitute the path centroids, but we relied on free-particle paths for sampling the path integrals. At low temperatures, the path sampling is expensive because the paths can travel far from the centroid configuration. We now present a scheme for importance sampling of whole Feynman paths based on harmonic information from an instantaneous normal mode calculation at the centroid configuration, which we refer to as harmonically guided whole-path importance sampling (WPIS). We obtain paths conforming to our chosen importance function by rejection sampling from a distribution of free-particle paths. Sample calculations on CH4 demonstrate that at a temperature of 200 K, about 99.9% of the free-particle paths can be rejected without integration, and at 300 K, about 98% can be rejected. We also show that it is typically possible to reduce the overhead associated with the WPIS scheme by sampling the paths using a significantly lower-order path discretization than that which is needed to converge the partition function.