Thermofield-based chain mapping approach for open quantum systems

We consider a thermofield approach to analyze the evolution of an open quantum system coupled to an environment at finite temperature. In this approach, the finite temperature environment is exactly mapped onto two virtual environments at zero temperature. These two environments are then unitarily transformed into two different chains of oscillators, leading to a one dimensional structure that can be numerically studied using tensor network techniques

Tensor Network Algorithms: a Route Map

Tensor networks provide extremely powerful tools for the study of complex classical and quantum many-body problems. Over the last two decades, the increment in the number of techniques and applications has been relentless, and especially the last ten years have seen an explosion of new ideas and results that may be overwhelming for the newcomer. This short review introduces the basic ideas, the best established methods and some of the most significant algorithmic developments that are expanding the boundaries of the tensor network potential. The goal is to help the reader not only appreciate the many possibilities offered by tensor networks, but also find their way through state-of-the-art codes, their applicability and some avenues of ongoing progress.Comment: Review paper. To appear (after edition) in Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. v2 fixes a problem with the placement of figure

Wigner function for a particle in an infinite lattice

We study the Wigner function for a quantum system with a discrete, infinite dimensional Hilbert space, such as a spinless particle moving on a one dimensional infinite lattice. We discuss the peculiarities of this scenario and of the associated phase space construction, propose a meaningful definition of the Wigner function in this case, and characterize the set of pure states for which it is non-negative. We propose a measure of non-classicality for states in this system which is consistent with the continuum limit. The prescriptions introduced here are illustrated by applying them to localized and Gaussian states, and to their superpositions.Comment: 19 pages (single column), 7 figure

Variational Matrix Product Operators for the Steady State of Dissipative Quantum Systems

We present a new variational method, based on the matrix product operator (MPO) ansatz, for finding the steady state of dissipative quantum chains governed by master equations of the Lindblad form. Instead of requiring an accurate representation of the system evolution until the stationary state is attained, the algorithm directly targets the final state, thus allowing for a faster convergence when the steady state is a MPO with small bond dimension. Our numerical simulations for several dissipative spin models over a wide range of parameters illustrate the performance of the method and show that indeed the stationary state is often well described by a MPO of very moderate dimensions.Comment: Accepted versio

Unifying Projected Entangled Pair States contractions

The approximate contraction of a Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) tensor network is a fundamental ingredient of any PEPS algorithm, required for the optimization of the tensors in ground state search or time evolution, as well as for the evaluation of expectation values. An exact contraction is in general impossible, and the choice of the approximating procedure determines the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm. We analyze different previous proposals for this approximation, and show that they can be understood via the form of their environment, i.e. the operator that results from contracting part of the network. This provides physical insight into the limitation of various approaches, and allows us to introduce a new strategy, based on the idea of clusters, that unifies previous methods. The resulting contraction algorithm interpolates naturally between the cheapest and most imprecise and the most costly and most precise method. We benchmark the different algorithms with finite PEPS, and show how the cluster strategy can be used for both the tensor optimization and the calculation of expectation values. Additionally, we discuss its applicability to the parallelization of PEPS and to infinite systems (iPEPS).Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, accepted versio

Algorithms for finite Projected Entangled Pair States

Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) are a promising ansatz for the study of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems in two dimensions. But due to their high computational cost, developing and improving PEPS algorithms is necessary to make the ansatz widely usable in practice. Here we analyze several algorithmic aspects of the method. On the one hand, we quantify the connection between the correlation length of the PEPS and the accuracy of its approximate contraction, and discuss how purifications can be used in the latter. On the other, we present algorithmic improvements for the update of the tensor that introduce drastic gains in the numerical conditioning and the efficiency of the algorithms. Finally, the state-of-the-art general PEPS code is benchmarked with the Heisenberg and quantum Ising models on lattices of up to $21 \times 21$ sites.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, accepted versio

Quantum simulation of the Schwinger model: A study of feasibility

We analyze some crucial questions regarding the practical feasibility of quantum simulation for lattice gauge models. Our analysis focuses on two models suitable for the quantum simulation of the Schwinger Hamiltonian, or QED in 1+1 dimensions, which we investigate numerically using tensor networks. In particular, we explore the effect of representing the gauge degrees of freedom with finite-dimensional systems and show that the results converge rapidly; thus even with small dimensions it is possible to obtain a reasonable accuracy. We also discuss the time scales required for the adiabatic preparation of the interacting vacuum state and observe that for a suitable ramping of the interaction the required time is almost insensitive to the system size and the dimension of the physical systems. Finally, we address the possible presence of noninvariant terms in the Hamiltonian that is realized in the experiment and show that for low levels of noise it is still possible to achieve a good precision for some ground-state observables, even if the gauge symmetry is not exact in the implemented model.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, published versio

How much entanglement is needed to reduce the energy variance?

We explore the relation between the entanglement of a pure state and its energy variance for a local one dimensional Hamiltonian, as the system size increases. In particular, we introduce a construction which creates a matrix product state of arbitrarily small energy variance $\delta^2$ for $N$ spins, with bond dimension scaling as $\sqrt{N} D_0^{1/\delta}$, where $D_0>1$ is a constant. This implies that a polynomially increasing bond dimension is enough to construct states with energy variance that vanishes with the inverse of the logarithm of the system size. We run numerical simulations to probe the construction on two different models, and compare the local reduced density matrices of the resulting states to the corresponding thermal equilibrium. Our results suggest that the spatially homogeneous states with logarithmically decreasing variance, which can be constructed efficiently, do converge to the thermal equilibrium in the thermodynamic limit, while the same is not true if the variance remains constant.Comment: small changes to fix typos and bibliographic reference

Using matrix product states to study the dynamical large deviations of kinetically constrained models

Here we demonstrate that tensor network techniques | originally devised for the analysis of quantum many-body problems | are well suited for the detailed study of rare event statistics in kinetically constrained models (KCMs). As concrete examples we consider the Fredrickson- Andersen and East models, two paradigmatic KCMs relevant to the modelling of glasses. We show how variational matrix product states allow to numerically approximate | systematically and with high accuracy | the leading eigenstates of the tilted dynamical generators which encode the large deviation statistics of the dynamics. Via this approach we can study system sizes beyond what is possible with other methods, allowing us to characterise in detail the _nite size scaling of the trajectory-space phase transition of these models, the behaviour of spectral gaps, and the spatial structure and \entanglement" properties of dynamical phases. We discuss the broader implications of our results