The stochastic series expansion (SSE) method is a quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) technique working directly in the imaginary time continuum and thus avoiding “Trotter discretization” errors. Using a nonlocal “operator-loop update,” it allows one to treat large quantum mechanical systems of many thousand sites. In this paper we first give a comprehensive review on SSE and present benchmark calculations of SSE scaling behavior with system size and inverse temperature, and compare it to the loop algorithm, whose scaling is known to be one of the best of all QMC methods. Finally we introduce an efficient algorithm to measure Green’s functions and thus dynamical properties within SSE.

• Received 6 June 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.64.066701