We review the use of the path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methodology to the
study of finite-size quantum clusters, with particular emphasis on recent
applications to pure and impurity-doped He clusters. We describe the principles
of PIMC, the use of the multilevel Metropolis method for sampling particle
permutations, and the methods used to accurately incorporate anisotropic
molecule-helium interactions into the path integral scheme. Applications to
spectroscopic studies of embedded atoms and molecules are summarized, with
discussion of the new concepts of local and nanoscale superfluidity that have
been generated by recent PIMC studies of the impurity-doped He clusters.Comment: P. Huang, Y. Kwon, and K. B. Whaley, in "Quantum Fluids in
Confinement", Vol. 4 of "Advances in Quantum Many-Body Theories", edited by
E. Krotscheck and J. Navarro (World Scientific, Singapore, 2002), in pres