Basic HTML version of Foils prepared 10 November 1995

Foil 5 Quantum Physics and Examples of Use of Computation

From Fox Presentation Fall 1995 CPS615 Basic Simulation Track for Computational Science -- Fall Semester 95. by Geoffrey C. Fox
This is a fundamental description of the microscopic world. You would in principle use it to describe everything but this is both unnecessary and too difficult both computationally and analytically.
Quantum Physics problems are typified by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) calculations and these end up looking identical to statistical physics problems numerically. There are also some chemistry problems where quantum effects are important. These give rise to several types of algorithms.
  • Solution to Schrodinger's equation (a partial differential equation). This can only be done exactly for simple 2-->4 particle systems
  • Formulation of a large matrix whose rows and columns are the distinct states of the system. This is followed by typical matrix operations (diagonalization, multiplication, inversion)
  • Statistical methods which can be thought of as Monte Carlo evaluation of integrals gotten in integral equation formulation of problem

© on Tue Oct 7 1997