Apuan Alps Centre for Physics @ TTI
Vallico Sotto, Tuscany, Italy

Sat 26th July - Sat 2nd August 2014

Organizer : Mike Towler

VENUE
http://vallico.net/tti/qmcitaa_14/

QMC WEBSITE
http://vallico.net/casinoqmc/conferencesworkshops/

POSTER
http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~mdt26/posterc14.png

Continuing the series of alternative and very informal meetings at this
venue, the Cambridge University Theory of Condensed Matter group is
organizing a ninth International Workshop to discuss the development and
application of the continuum quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method and related
topics in quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. The conference
will take place in our 15th Century monastery in the mediaeval high
mountain village of Vallico Sotto (located in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany
near the beautiful Italian city of Lucca).

For many types of problem the accuracy of QMC is much better than that of
the more widely-used density functional theory (DFT), and its scaling with
number of atoms (normally cubic) is much more favourable than that of
high-level quantum chemistry - to the extent that it can treat systems of
up several thousand electrons per molecule (or per unit cell in periodic
systems). Unlike most other methods, it is also fully capable of
exploiting the full power of the largest computers in the world (e.g. the
Cambridge CASINO code has been shown to have almost perfect parallel
scaling in statistical accumulation on hundreds of thousands of CPU
cores). QMC is now used widely in real-world problems of significant
complexity up to and including high T-c superconductors; some recent
advances and applications to complex energy-relevant materials are
reviewed by Lucas Wagner in IJQC 114, 94 (2014).

During the meeting all topics related to applications of QMC and/or theory
and algorithm development will be welcome, though it is expected that
broader topics in the general area will also be discussed. A particular
topic of interest is the relationship between QMC and density functional
theory. In particular, we hope to look towards obtaining a better
understanding of the relative benefits of QMC/DFT in systems and
situations where DFT often fails, such as in weakly-interacting systems,
strongly-correlated materials, metal-insulator transitions, magnetic
properties, and biological systems. Furthermore, it is intended to look
into the better integration of DFT and QMC codes. In industrial
applications, where users typically require ease-of-use and a graphical
user interface, it would be good to move towards a situation where the
user may do e.g. pre-screening of candidate structures with the faster
DFT, then press a `Make the Answer Better button' which feeds the relevant
wave function files into a QMC programme and spits out reliably accurate
energetics for the selected problems. It is also of interest to understand
how to `move the atoms' in QMC i.e. how to exploit the power of QMC in
cheaper DFT and classical-force-field molecular dynamics calculations (in
the context of `embedding methods' or otherwise). Additionally we can look
at how to use QMC to develop better exchange-correlation functionals for
use in DFT. We therefore warmly encourage the participation of people who
may never have a run a QMC simulation in their lives but are nevertheless
interested in the topic. The programme is not fixed, and suggestions for
alternative discussion topics and other proposals are welcome.

The normal format for events at the Apuan Alps Centre for Physics involves
formal presentations being restricted to the mornings, with the afternoons
left free for relaxed discussion and participation in activities. For the
young and vigorous, we organize mountain walks, caving and other healthy
outdoor exercise, whilst those not so inclined might enjoy artistic tours,
city visits, and gentle country strolls, with all participants reuniting
in the evening for relaxed Tuscan dinners in local restaurants. The
monastery is a unique venue where the community spirit and magnificent
location have inspired memorable meetings in the past.

This year's workshop will involve up to 50 people, all accommodated on
site and in the village. Many speakers will be specifically invited, but
anyone who feels that they have something to contribute and who wishes to
attend the event is most welcome to contact the organizer (Mike Towler:
mdt26 at cam.ac.uk) for further details. There is no formal charge either
for attendance at the conference or accommodation (unless you stay in a
commercial hotel). A provisional programmme is available on the website.

Further details of previous workshops back to 2005, including photographs,
reports, and a complete archive of all the talks presented in the last ten
years are available online here:

http://vallico.net/casinoqmc/conferencesworkshops/

A quantum Monte carlo summer school will be held at the same venue,
beginning the day after the workshop closes. See here for details:

http://vallico.net/casinoqmc/summer-schools/

Best wishes,
Mike Towler