Quantum simulation of the electronic structure of diatomic molecules

The domain Green’s function Monte Carlo (GFMC) method with the fixed-node approximation is used to calculate the binding energies and correlation energies of most of the first row diatomic molecules. Our results show that the many-electron correlations are significant and that GFMC corrections to Hartree–Fock wave functions produce 80% to 90% of the correlation energy. Our GFMC calculations have an accuracy comparable to or better than standard methods in quantum chemistry.