Confidence and efficiency scaling in Variational Quantum Monte Carlo calculations

Based on the central limit theorem, we discuss the problem of evaluation of the statistical error of Monte Carlo calculations using a time discretized diffusion process. We present a robust and practical method to determine the effective variance of general observables and show how to verify the equilibrium hypothesis by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We then derive scaling laws of the efficiency illustrated by Variational Monte Carlo calculations on the two dimensional electron gas.