QMC-SW: A simple workflow for quantum Monte Carlo calculations in chemistry

With constant improvements in the speed of computers, the importance of Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) in chemistry is destined to increase substantially in the next decades, for both benchmark and routine calculations. The accessibility of QMC methods, however, is currently limited by the unintuitive re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:SoftwareX
Main Authors: Vladimir Konkov, Roberto Peverati
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2018.11.001
https://doaj.org/article/d3d7f030bc3c4f74ad1547c5607c01aa
Description
Summary:With constant improvements in the speed of computers, the importance of Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) in chemistry is destined to increase substantially in the next decades, for both benchmark and routine calculations. The accessibility of QMC methods, however, is currently limited by the unintuitive requirements to run most modern QMC codes, and by their sometimes-complicated connections with pre-existing quantum chemistry codes. We present QMC-SW, a Quantum Monte Carlo Snakemake Workflow that automates QMC calculations using the CASINO program, with trial wave functions generated by popular quantum chemistry software, such as ORCA and Q-Chem. A validation of the workflow is also presented, using calculations on atomic and molecular systems. Keywords: Quantum Monte Carlo, Computational chemistry, Benchmark calculations