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SUMMARY:Quantum Chemical Games of Life - Professor Ali Alavi\, Department 
 of Chemistry
DTSTART:20140302T163000Z
DTEND:20140302T172000Z
UID:TALK51201@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Trinity College Science Society
DESCRIPTION:Quantum mechanics provides the fundamental basis with which we
  can understand chemistry: the properties of atoms\, molecules\, and even 
 solids\, can in principle be computed from a knowledge of only the fundame
 ntal constants. However\, it turns out the underlying problem to be solved
  - namely the many-electron Schrödinger equation - has an extraordinary c
 omplexity that defeats all known forms of computation: because of the Paul
 i principle\, many-electron wavefunctions are intrinsically highly nodal f
 unctions\, which additionally\, exhibit a high degree of entanglement betw
 een different configurations of electrons. In this talk we will describe a
  stochastic computational algorithm my group has developed which attacks t
 his problem in a new way. We will show how solutions to the many-electron 
 Schrödinger equation can "emerge" from a stochastic "Game of Life" played
  in a space of Slater determinants. Examples of the kind of insights into 
 the nature of many-electron wavefunctions that the technique affords will 
 be provided.
LOCATION:Winstanley Lecture Theatre
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