Linear scaling for the local energy in quantum Monte Carlo

The scaling of the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method can be greatly improved when localized orbitals and short-range correlation functions are employed as recently suggested by the authors. The local diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method is described in detail with a careful analysis of errors. The new method achieves near linear scaling in the calculation of the local energy. Results demonstrating the improved performance are presented. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.