Over fifteen years ago, because of the tremendous increase in the power and utility of computer simulations, The University of Georgia formed the first institutional unit devoted to the use of simulations in research and teach ing: The Center for Simulational Physics. As the international simulations community expanded further, we sensed a need for a meeting place for both experienced simulators and neophytes to discuss new techniques and recent results in an environment which promoted lively discussion. As a consequence, the Center for Simulational Physics established an annual workshop on Re cent Developments in Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed Matter Physics. This year's workshop was the fifteenth in this series, and the con tinued interest shown by the scientific community demonstrates quite clearly the useful purpose that these meetings have served. The latest workshop was held at The University of Georgia, March 11-15, 2002, and these proceedings provide a "status report" on a number of important topics. This volume is published with the goal of timely dissemination of the material to a wider audience. We wish to offer a special thanks to IBM Corporation and to the National Science Foundation for partial support of this year's workshop. This volume contains both invited papers and contributed presentations on problems in both classical and quantum condensed matter physics. We hope that each reader will benefit from specialized results as well as profit from exposure to new algorithms, methods of analysis, and conceptual devel opments. Athens, GA, USA D. P.

Status report on the latest developments in simulations in condensed-matter physics

Autorentext
David P. Landau is the Distinguished Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia.

Klappentext
This book is a status report. It provides a broad overview of the most recent developments in the field, spanning a wide range of topical areas in simulational condensed matter physics. These areas include recent developments in simulations of classical statistical mechanics models, electronic structure calculations, quantum simulations, and simulations of polymers. Both new physical results and novel simulational and data analysis methods are presented. Some of the highlights of this volume include detailed accounts of recent theoretical developments in electronic structure calculations, novel quantum simulation techniques and their applications to strongly interacting lattice fermion models, and a wide variety of applications of existing methods as well as novel methods in the simulation of classical statistical mechanics models, including spin glasses and polymers.

Inhalt
1 Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed Matter Physics: An Introduction.- I Magnetism.- 2 Low-Temperature Metastability: Prefactors, Divergences, and Discontinuities.- 3 Fine-Grid Simulations of Thermally Activated Switching in Nanoscale Magnets.- 4 Determining the Saddle Point in Micromagnetic Models of Magnetization Switching.- 5 Macroscopic Magnetization Jumps in Strongly Frustrated Quantum Spin Lattices.- 6 Nonequilibrium Relaxation Study on the Ferromagnetic Transition of Ising Spin Glass Model.- 7 Nonequilibrium Relaxation Analysis of Frustrated XY Models in Two Dimensions.- 8 First Principles Calculations of the Magnetic Structure in FeMn/Co Bilayers.- II Quantum Systems.- 9 Phase Transitions and Quantum Effects in Pore Condensates.- 10 Polynomial Expansion Method for the Monte Carlo Calculation of Strongly Correlated Electron Systems.- 11 Prom Frustrated Ising Models to Quantum Computing.- 12 Parallel Quantum Monte Carlo Simulation of S = 3 Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Chain.- 13 Melting of Stripes in a Two-Dimensional Hard-Core Boson Hubbard Model.- 14 A Microscopic Approach to the Mott-Hubbard Gap.- 15 Two Quantum Cluster Approximations.- III Materials Properties.- 16 Asymptotic Behavior of a Strain Percolation Model for a Deforming Metal.- 17 Calculation of Static and Thermal Displacements in Metallic Alloys.- 18 Monte Carlo Simulation of the Surface Structure of Ge on Si(001).- IV Liquids and Colloids.- 19 Simulating Semiconductor Liquids with Ab Initio Pseudopotentials and Quantum Forces.- 20 Mapping Molecular Simulations to Continuum Models for Binary Fluids.- 21 Electrokinetic Phenomena Revisited: A LatticeBoltzmann Approach.- V Methods and Algorithms.- 22 Binary Tree Summation Monte Carlo Method for Potts Models.- 23 Probability-Changing ClusterAlgorithm for Two-Dimensional Systems with the Vector Order Parameter.- 24 Flat Histogram Method of Wang-Landau and N-Fold Way.- 25 Solving the Time-Dependent Maxwell Equations by Unconditionally Stable Algorithms.- 26 Chebyshev Method to Solve the Time-Dependent Maxwell Equations.- 27 Statistical Mechanics of Classical Distinguishable Particles.- List of Contributors.