Quantum impurity models describe an atom or molecule embedded in a host material with which it can exchange electrons. They are basic to nanoscience as representations of quantum dots and molecular conductors and play an increasingly important role in the theory of ``correlated electron'' materials as auxiliary problems whose solution gives the ``dynamical mean-field'' approximation to the self-energy and local correlation functions. These applications require a method of solution which provides access to both high and low energy scales and is effective for wide classes of physically realistic models. The continuous-time quantum Monte~Carlo algorithms reviewed in this article meet this challenge. Derivations and descriptions of the algorithms are presented in enough detail to allow other workers to write their own implementations, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the methods, summarize the problems to which the new methods have been successfully applied, and outline prospects for future applications.

We present a numerically exact continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for fermions with a general interaction nonlocal in space-time. The new determinantal grand-canonical scheme is based on a stochastic series expansion for the partition function in the interaction representation. The method is particularly applicable for multiband, time-dependent correlations since it does not invoke the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation. The test calculations for exactly solvable models, as well results for the Green function and for the time-dependent susceptibility of the multiband supersymmetric model with a spin-flip interaction are discussed.

A diagrammatic technique is developed to describe nonlocal effects (e.g., pseudogap formation) in the Hubbard-like models. In contrast to cluster approaches, this method utilizes an exact transition to the dual set of variables, and it therefore becomes possible to treat the irreducible vertices of an effective single-impurity problem as small parameters. This provides a very efficient interpolation between weak coupling (band) and atomic limits. The antiferromagnetic pseudogap formation in the Hubbard model is correctly reproduced by just the lowest-order diagrams.

We present an efficient diagrammatic method to describe nonlocal correlation effects in lattice fermion Hubbard-type models, which is based on a change of variables in the Grassmann path integrals. The new fermions are dual to the original ones and correspond to weakly interacting quasiparticles in the case of strong local correlations in the Hubbard model. The method starts with dynamical mean-field theory as a zeroth-order approximation and includes nonlocal effects in a perturbative way. In contrast to cluster approaches, this method utilizes an exact transition to a dual set of variables. It therefore becomes possible to treat vertices of an effective single-impurity problem as small parameters. This provides a very efficient interpolation between bandlike weak-coupling and atomic limits. The method is illustrated on the two-dimensional Hubbard model. The antiferromagnetic pseudogap, Fermi-arc formations, and non-Fermi-liquid effects due to the Van Hove singularity are correctly reproduced by the lowest-order diagrams. Extremum properties of the dual fermion approach are discussed in terms of the Feynman variational principle.

We present a novel approach to long-range correlations beyond dynamical mean-field theory, through a ladder approximation to dual fermions. The new technique is applied to the two-dimensional Hubbard model. We demonstrate that the transformed perturbation series for the nonlocal dual fermions has superior convergence properties over standard diagrammatic techniques. The critical Néel temperature of the mean-field solution is suppressed in the ladder approximation, in accordance with quantum Monte Carlo results. An illustration of how the approach captures and allows us to distinguish short- and long-range correlations is given.