Quantum Monte Carlo simulation in the canonical ensemble at finite temperature

A quantum Monte Carlo method with a nonlocal update scheme is presented. The method is based on a path-integral decomposition and a worm operator which is local in imaginary time. It generates states with a fixed number of particles and respects other exact symmetries. Observables like the equal-time Green's function can be evaluated in an efficient way. To demonstrate the versatility of the method, results for the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model and a nuclear pairing model are presented. Within the context of the Bose-Hubbard model the efficiency of the algorithm is discussed.