The propagator ofNinteracting identical particles indspatial dimensions can be written as a Feynman-Kac functional over a symmetrized process, i.e. as a Euclidean-time path integral over the diffusion process ofNidentical free particles with superimposed potential-dependent exponential weights. Recently a many-body diffusion formalism [“MBDF”] was developed, which allows, for coordinate-symmetric potentials and for certain irreducible symmetry representations, to separate the total propagator into a sum of stochastically independent sub-propagators. This method was applied to calculate “numerically exactly” the ground state energy for electrons in a parabolic confinement. In particular the example of a 2D closed shell system with six, twelve and twenty unpolarised interacting electrons in a quantum dot with parabolic confinement was treated. The results obtained by the MBDF method are compared with earlier theoretical approximations for this system. ©2001 American Institute of Physics.