Beyond Belief Propagation: Cluster-Corrected Tensor Network Contraction with Exponential Convergence

Siddhant Midha, Yifan F. Zhang (Oct 03 2025).

Abstract: Tensor network contraction on arbitrary graphs is a fundamental computational challenge with applications ranging from quantum simulation to error correction. While belief propagation (BP) provides a powerful approximation algorithm for this task, its accuracy limitations are poorly understood and systematic improvements remain elusive. Here, we develop a rigorous theoretical framework for BP in tensor networks, leveraging insights from statistical mechanics to devise a \emphcluster expansion that systematically improves the BP approximation. We prove that the cluster expansion converges exponentially fast if an object called the \emphloop contribution decays sufficiently fast with the loop size, giving a rigorous error bound on BP. We also provide a simple and efficient algorithm to compute the cluster expansion to arbitrary order. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method on the two-dimensional Ising model, where we find that our method significantly improves upon BP and existing corrective algorithms such as loop series expansion. Our work opens the door to a systematic theory of BP for tensor networks and its applications in decoding classical and quantum error-correcting codes and simulating quantum systems.

Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02290