High order Chin actions in path integral Monte Carlo

High order actions proposed by Chin have been used for the first time in path integral Monte Carlo simulations. Contrary to the Takahashi-Imada action, which is accurate to the fourth order only for the trace, the Chin action is fully fourth order, with the additional advantage that the leading fourth-order error coefficients are finely tunable. By optimizing two free parameters entering in the new action, we show that the time step error dependence achieved is best fitted with a sixth order law. The computational effort per bead is increased but the total number of beads is greatly reduced and the efficiency improvement with respect to the primitive approximation is approximately a factor of 10. The Chin action is tested in a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, a H(2) drop, and bulk liquid (4)He. In all cases a sixth-order law is obtained with values of the number of beads that compare well with the pair action approximation in the stringent test of superfluid (4)He.