Thermal effects on small para‐hydrogen clusters

A brief review of different quantum Monte Carlo simulations of small (p‐H 2 ) N clusters is presented. The clusters are viewed as a set of N structureless p‐H 2 molecules, interacting via an isotropic pairwise potential. Properties as superfluidity, magic numbers, radial structure, excitation spectra, and abundance production of (p‐H 2 ) N clusters are discussed and, whenever possible, a comparison with 4 He N droplets is presented. All together, the simulations indicate that temperature has a paradoxical effect of the properties of (p‐H 2 ) N clusters, as they are solid‐like at high T and liquid‐like at low T , due to quantum delocalization at the lowest temperature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011