Reptation Quantum Monte Carlo calculation of charge transfer: The Na–Cl dimer

The phenomenon of ion pairing in aqueous solutions is of widespread importance in chemistry and physics, and charge transfer between the ions plays a significant role. We examine the performance of quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations for describing the charge transfer behavior in a NaCl dimer. The influence of the fermion nodes is investigated by obtaining the electron density using the reptation Monte Carlo approach. The fermion nodes are given by single-particle orbitals in Slater–Jastrow trial wavefunctions. We consider the single-particle orbitals from Hartree–Fock and density functional theory calculations with several exchange-correlation approximations. Appreciable dependence of the charge transfer on the fixed-node approximation was found although the total energy was found to be rather insensitive. Our work shows that a careful examination of the fixed-node approximation is necessary for quantifying charge transfer in QMC calculations even when other properties such as reaction energetics are insensitive to the approximation.