Exact restoration of Galilei invariance in density functional calculations with quantum Monte Carlo

Understand

Galilean invariance is usually violated in self-consistent mean-field calculations that employ effective density-dependent nuclear forces.

• We present a novel approach, based on variational quantum Monte Carlo techniques, suitable to preserve this symmetry and assess the effect of its violation, seldom attempted in the past.
• To this aim, we generalize the linear optimization method to encompass the density-dependence of effective Hamiltonians, and study $^4$He, $^{16}$O, and $^{40}$Ca ground-state properties employing the Gogny interaction.