Search for Exotic Phases of Matter Through Computer Simulations

Abstract

The search for new phases of matter and their quantitative characterization is one of the central goals of condensed matter physics. To that end, quantum Monte Carlo is a tremendously powerful toolbox that enables the simulation of assemblies of interacting bosons, allowing the exact calculation of thermodynamic, structural, and superfluid properties. In this thesis, we utilize these techniques to carry out first-principles computations to study the phase diagrams of a diverse set of quantum many-body systems, from condensed hydrogen to superfluid helium to ultracold gases with a variety of inter-particle interactions. Within this framework, we also compute dynamical properties in imaginary time and perform analytical continuation to extract real-time information.