The Advanced Computational Physics course provides an introduction to numerical techniques used for solving quantum many-body problems. It covers (Quantum) Monte Carlo, Hartree Fock and Density Functional Theory. The course and its seminar module are intended to provide solid theoretical understanding of all fundamental concepts of solid state physics and the capability to compute electronic and mechanical properties of materials with state of the art numerical methods.
The course will be highly interactive, depending on the interest of the class we will steer towards specific directions, possibly including the use of machine learning methods or the discussion of selected topics in material science.
In this hand on module we will learn how to use some large and powerful codes to perform specific tasks in solid state physics.
The Monte Carlo CASINO code will be used to simulate the electron gas in different approximations and understand the problem of correlation in material science.
A Density functional based code will be used to simulate the property of chemical systems and crystals of different nature. The specific applications can be decided depending on the interest of the participants.
The DFT code of choice is Quantum Espresso. But other codes (VASP, Abinit, Elk) can also be adopted.
