RESOLUTION OF THE SIGN PROBLEM IN QUANTUM MONTE-CARLO SIMULATIONS OF ANNULENES

The applicability of Green's function (GF) and Feynman path-integral quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods for the simulation of cyclic networks with (4n + 2) and 4n (n = 1, 2, 3,...) electrons is analysed. Both QMC techniques are employed in simulations on the basis of the simple Huckel Hamiltonian which is exclusively defined by nearest-neighbour hopping elements. In addition we have used the Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) Hamiltonian to perform GF QMC simulations. The electronic energies E derived by the QMC methods are compared either with Huckel molecular orbital (HMO) results or exact configuration interaction data where (pi) electronic correlations are fully taken into account. A sign problem occurs in QMC simulations of 4n annulenes. This leads to an error in the total energy in the standard formulations of the employed QMC techniques, which is enhanced with decreasing ring size. A simple modification in the QMC formalisms is suggested to avoid the numerical uncertainties caused by the sign problem in 4n annulenes. Renormalization of the kinetic hopping integrals t by t cos (pi/M) with M abbreviating the number of atomic sites leads to ground state energies as well as any other quantity close to the values derived by conventional diagonalization techniques. Substitution of t against t cos (pi/M) conserves a common sign of all matrix elements containing the hopping. The occurrence of negative probabilities, which lead to numerical problems in the QMC simulations, is thereby prevented. The transformation suggested in 4n rings has a formal connection to so-called Mobius rings.