G. Senatore
In the first lecture I shall briefly review the diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC)
method - the simplest Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) scheme to treat systems of
interacting particles on the continuum, at vanishing temperature. In particular, I shall
emphasize the exact nature of the method when applied to Bosons and summarize the fixed -
node approximation for Fermions.
In the remaining two lectures I shall present a number of applications of the method to
study ground state properties of model electron systems relevant to condensed matter
physics, and especially to low dimensional electrons in solid state devices. Thus I shall
review predictions for the zero temperature phase diagrams of (i) an electron bilayer and
(ii) a symmetric electron-hole bilayer, discussing in detail the features of relevant
correlation functions.
I shall also briefly speak about an ongoing investigation on electrons in
1 dimension. Finally, if I have time, I shall summarize applications to atoms, molecules
and solids.