Monte carlo diagonalization of very large matrices: application to fermion systems

All known Quantum-Monte-Carlo algorithms for fermions suffer from the so-called “minus-sign-problem” which is detrimental to the application of these simulation methods to fermion systems at very low temperatures and/or of very many lattice sites. We identify the origin of this fundamental problem, demonstrate that it is a very general feature, not necessarily related to the presence of fermionic degrees of freedom. We describe an novel algorithm which does not suffer from the minus-sign problem. Illustrative results for the two-dimensional Hubbard model are presented