TY - JOUR T1 - A Branching Random Walk Method for Many-Body Wigner Quantum Dynamics AU - Sihong Shao & Yunfeng Xiong JO - Numerical Mathematics: Theory, Methods and Applications VL - 1 SP - 21 EP - 71 PY - 2018 DA - 2018/09 SN - 12 DO - http://doi.org/10.4208/nmtma.OA-2018-0074 UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/nmtma/12690.html KW - AB -

A branching random walk algorithm for many-body Wigner equations and its numerical applications for quantum dynamics in phase space are proposed and analyzed in this paper. Using an auxiliary function, the truncated Wigner equation and its adjoint form are cast into integral formulations, which can be then reformulated into renewal-type equations with probabilistic interpretations. We prove that the first moment of a branching random walk is the solution for the adjoint equation. With the help of the additional degree of freedom offered by the auxiliary function, we are able to produce a weighted-particle implementation of the branching random walk. In contrast to existing signed-particle implementations, this weighted-particle one shows a key capacity of variance reduction by increasing the constant auxiliary function and has no time discretization errors. Several canonical numerical experiments on the 2D Gaussian barrier scattering and a 4D Helium-like system validate our theoretical findings, and demonstrate the accuracy, the efficiency, and thus the computability of the proposed weighted-particle Wigner branching random walk algorithm.