Diffusion Monte Carlo study of circular quantum dots

We present ground and excited state energies obtained from Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) calculations, using accurate multiconfiguration wave functions, for $N$ electrons ($N\le13$) confined to a circular quantum dot. We analyze the electron-electron pair correlation functions and compare the density and correlation energies to the predictions of local spin density approximation theory (LSDA). The DMC estimated change in electrochemical potential as function of the number of electrons in the dot is compared to that from LSDA and Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations.