Quantum and Classical Calculations of Ground State Properties of Parabolic Quantum Dots

TL;DR

This paper compares quantum Monte Carlo and classical molecular dynamics calculations of ground state properties of parabolic quantum dots, revealing similarities in electron density shapes but differences in detailed distributions due to quantum effects.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of quantum and classical methods for calculating quantum dot ground states, highlighting quantum effects on electron distributions.

Findings

Quantum and classical calculations show similar overall electron density shapes.

Quantum effects influence detailed radial electron distributions.

Electron-electron interactions and magnetic field responses are characterized.

Abstract

We report calculations for electronic ground states of parabolically confined quantum dots for up to 30 electrons based on the quantum Monte Carlo method. Effects of the electron-electron interaction and the response to a magnetic field are exposed. The wavefunctions and the ground state energies are compared with purely classical calculations performed with a comprehensive Molecular Dynamics code. For the chosen well parameters a close correspondence in the overall shape of electron density distribution is found even for small number of electrons, while the detailed radial distributions show the effects of Pauli principle in the quantal case.