Quantum cluster algorithm for frustrated Ising models in a transverse field

Working within the stochastic series expansion framework, we introduce and characterize a plaquette-based quantum cluster algorithm for quantum Monte Carlo simulations of transverse field Ising models with frustrated Ising exchange interactions. As a demonstration of the capabilities of this algorithm, we show that a relatively small ferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor coupling drives the transverse field Ising antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice from an antiferromagnetic three-sublattice ordered state at low temperature to a ferrimagnetic three-sublattice ordered state.