POSSIBLE EQUIVALENCE OF FEYNMANS BACKFLOW AND SPIN-DEPENDENT CORRELATIONS

The topic in the title has produced debate about whether spin-dependen t correlations should be used in trial wave functions for Hamiltonians that are independent of spin. We investigate this question by calcula ting the ground-state properties of a small system of He-3 atoms using the variational Monte Carlo method and trial wave functions, first, w ith explicit backflow correlations and second, with spin-dependent cor relations. We review how backflow and spin-dependent correlations can be made approximately equivalent, and then give; Monte Carlo results w hich demonstrate that spin-dependent correlations can substantially re produce the effect of backflow correlations.