A benchmark study of the Signed-particle Monte Carlo algorithm for the Wigner equation

Abstract

Abstract The Wigner equation represents a promising model for the simulation of electronic nanodevices, which allows the comprehension and prediction of quantum mechanical phenomena in terms of quasi-distribution functions. During these years, a Monte Carlo technique for the solution of this kinetic equation has been developed, based on the generation and annihilation of signed particles. This technique can be deeply understood in terms of the theory of pure jump processes with a general state space, producing a class of stochastic algorithms. One of these algorithms has been validated successfully by numerical experiments on a benchmark test case.