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arXiv:1002.1305 · New Journal of Physics

Minimally entangled typical thermal state algorithms

E M Stoudenmire, Steven R White

Published May 28, 2010• 300 citations
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Abstract

We discuss a method based on sampling minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) that can simulate finite temperature quantum systems with a computational cost comparable to the ground state density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Detailed implementation of each step of the method is presented, along with efficient algorithms for working with matrix product states and matrix product operators. Furthermore, we explore how the properties of METTS can reveal characteristic order and excitations of systems and discuss why METTS form an efficient basis for sampling. Finally, we explore the extent to which the average entanglement of a METTS ensemble is minimal.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/12/5/055026

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We discuss a method based on sampling minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) that can simulate finite temperature quantum systems with a computational cost comparable to the ground state density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). Detailed implementation of each step of the method is presented, along with efficient algorithms for working with matrix product states and matrix product operators. Furthermore, we explore how the properties of METTS can reveal characteristic order and excitations of systems and discuss why METTS form an efficient basis for sampling. Finally, we explore the extent to which the average entanglement of a METTS ensemble is minimal.
We discuss a method based on sampling minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) that can simulate finite temperature quantum systems with a computational cost comparable to ground state DMRG. Detailed implementations of each step of the method are presented, along with efficient algorithms for working with matrix product states and matrix product operators. We furthermore explore how properties of METTS can reveal characteristic order and excitations of systems and discuss why METTS form an efficient basis for sampling. Finally, we explore the extent to which the average entanglement of a METTS ensemble is minimal.
Based on the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), strongly correlated quantum many-body systems at finite temperatures can be simulated by sampling over a certain class of pure matrix product states (MPS) called minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS). When a system features symmetries, these can be utilized to substantially reduce MPS computation costs. It is conceptually straightforward to simulate canonical ensembles using symmetric METTS. In practice, it is important to alternate between different symmetric collapse bases to decrease autocorrelations in the Markov chain of METTS. To this purpose, we introduce symmetric Fourier and Haar-random block bases that are efficiently mixing. We also show how grand-canonical ensembles can be simulated efficiently with symmetric METTS. We demonstrate these approaches for spin-1/21/21/2 XXZXXZXXZ chains and discuss how the choice of the collapse bases influences autocorrelations as well as the distribution of measurement values and, hence, convergence speeds.
For the simulation of equilibrium states and finite-temperature response functions of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems, we compare the efficiencies of two different approaches in the framework of the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). The first is based on matrix product purifications. The second, more recent one, is based on so-called minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS). For the latter, we highlight the interplay of statistical and DMRG truncation errors, discuss the use of self-averaging effects, and describe schemes for the computation of response functions. For critical as well as gapped phases of the $\text{spin}\ensuremath{-}1/2$ XXZ chain and the one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, we assess the computation costs and accuracies of the two methods at different temperatures. For almost all considered cases, we find that, for the same computation cost, purifications yield more accurate results than METTS---often by orders of magnitude. The METTS algorithm becomes more efficient only for temperatures well below the system's energy gap. The exponential growth of the computation cost in the evaluation of response functions limits the attainable time scales in both methods and we find that in this regard, METTS do not outperform purifications.
Finite temperature problems in the strong correlated systems are important but challenging tasks. Minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) are a powerful method in the framework of tensor network methods to simulate finite temperature systems, including Fermions and frustrated spins which introduce a sign problem in the typical Monte Carlo methods. In this work, we introduce an extension of the METTS algorithm by using a new basis, the auxiliary matrix product state. This new basis achieves the pre-summation process in the partition function, and thus improve the convergence in the Monte Carlo samplings. The method also has the advantage of simulating the grand canonical ensemble in a computationally efficient way by employing good quantum numbers. We benchmark our method on the spin-1/21/21/2 XXZ model on the triangular lattice, and show that the new method outperforms the original METTS as well as the purification methods at sufficiently low temperature, the usual range of applications of METTS. The new method also naturally connects the METTS method to the purification method.
We discuss the computational efficiency of the finite-temperature simulation with minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS). To argue that METTS can be efficiently represented as matrix product states, we present an analytic upper bound for the average entanglement R\'enyi entropy of METTS for a R\'enyi index $0<q\ensuremath{\le}1$. In particular, for one-dimensional (1D) gapless systems described by conformal field theories, the upper bound scales as $O(c{N}^{0}log\ensuremath{\beta})$ where ccc is the central charge and NNN is the system size. Furthermore, we numerically find that the average R\'enyi entropy exhibits a universal behavior characterized by the central charge and is roughly given by half of the analytic upper bound. Based on these results, we show that METTS can provide a speedup compared to employing the purification method to analyze thermal equilibrium states at low temperatures in 1D gapless systems.
Minimally Entangled Typical Thermal States for Classical and Quantum Simulation of 1+1-Dimensional Z2\mathbb Z_2Z2​ Lattice Gauge Theory at Finite Temperature and Density
Simulating strongly coupled gauge theories at finite temperature and density is a longstanding challenge in nuclear and high-energy physics that also has fundamental implications for condensed matter physics. In this work, we use minimally entangled typical thermal state (METTS) approaches to facilitate both classical and quantum computational studies of such systems. METTS techniques combine classical random sampling with imaginary time evolution, which can be performed on either a classical or a quantum computer, to estimate thermal averages of observables. We study 1+1-dimensional Z2\mathbb{Z}_2Z2​ gauge theory coupled to spinless fermionic matter, which maps onto a local quantum spin chain. We benchmark both a classical matrix-product-state implementation of METTS and a recently proposed adaptive variational approach that is a promising candidate for implementation on near-term quantum devices, focusing on the equation of state as well as on various measures of fermion confinement. Of particular importance is the choice of basis for obtaining new METTS samples, which impacts both the classical sampling complexity (a key factor in both classical and quantum simulation applications) and complexity of circuits used in the quantum computing approach. Our work sets the stage for future studies of strongly coupled gauge theories with both classical and quantum hardware.