  The Stochastic Series Expansion (SSE) technique is a quantum Monte Carlo
method that is especially efficient for many quantum spin systems and boson
models. It was the first generic method free from the discretization errors
affecting previous path integral based approaches. These lecture notes give a
brief overview of the SSE method and its applications. In the introductory
section, the representation of quantum statistical mechanics by the power
series expansion of ${\rm e}^{-\beta H}$ will be compared with path integrals
in discrete and continuous imaginary time. Extensions of the SSE approach to
ground state projection and quantum annealing in imaginary time will also be
briefly discussed. The later sections introduce efficient sampling schemes
(loop and cluster updates) that have been developed for many classes of models.
A summary of generic forms of estimators for important observables are also
given. Applications are discussed in the last section.
