Communication: Toward an improved control of the fixed-node error in quantum Monte Carlo: The case of the water molecule

Abstract

All-electron Fixed-node Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations for the nonrelativistic ground-state energy of the water molecule at equilibrium geometry are presented. The determinantal part of the trial wavefunction is obtained from a selected Configuration Interaction calculation [Configuration Interaction using a Perturbative Selection done Iteratively (CIPSI) method] including up to about 1.4 × 106 of determinants. Calculations are made using the cc-pCVnZ family of basis sets, with n = 2 to 5. In contrast with most quantum Monte Carlo works no re-optimization of the determinantal part in presence of a Jastrow is performed. For the largest cc-pCV5Z basis set the lowest upper bound for the ground-state energy reported so far of -76.437 44(18) is obtained. The fixed-node energy is found to decrease regularly as a function of the cardinal number n and the Complete Basis Set limit associated with exact nodes is easily extracted. The resulting energy of -76.438 94(12) - in perfect agreement with the best experimentally derived value - is the most accurate theoretical estimate reported so far. We emphasize that employing selected configuration interaction nodes of increasing quality in a given family of basis sets may represent a simple, deterministic, reproducible, and systematic way of controlling the fixed-node error in diffusion Monte Carlo.