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arXiv:1708.00029 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Irreducible forms of matrix product states: Theory and applications

Gemma De las Cuevas, J. I. Cirac, Norbert Schuch, David Pérez-Garcı́a

Published Dec 1, 2017• 27 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The canonical form of Matrix Product States (MPS) and the associated fundamental theorem, which relates different MPS representations of a state, are the theoretical framework underlying many of the analytical results derived through MPS, such as the classification of symmetry-protected phases in one dimension. Yet, the canonical form is only defined for MPS without non-trivial periods and thus cannot fully capture paradigmatic states such as the antiferromagnet. Here, we introduce a new standard form for MPS, the irreducible form, which is defined for arbitrary MPS, including periodic states, and show that any tensor can be transformed into a tensor in irreducible form describing the same MPS. We then prove a fundamental theorem for MPS in irreducible form: If two tensors in irreducible form give rise to the same MPS, then they must be related by a similarity transform, together with a matrix of phases. We provide two applications of this result: an equivalence between the refinement properties of a state and the divisibility properties of its transfer matrix, and a more general characterisation of tensors that give rise to matrix product states with symmetries.

DOI
10.1063/1.5000784

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The canonical form of Matrix Product States (MPS) and the associated fundamental theorem, which relates different MPS representations of a state, are the theoretical framework underlying many of the analytical results derived through MPS, such as the classification of symmetry-protected phases in one dimension. Yet, the canonical form is only defined for MPS without non-trivial periods and thus cannot fully capture paradigmatic states such as the antiferromagnet. Here, we introduce a new standard form for MPS, the irreducible form, which is defined for arbitrary MPS, including periodic states, and show that any tensor can be transformed into a tensor in irreducible form describing the same MPS. We then prove a fundamental theorem for MPS in irreducible form: If two tensors in irreducible form give rise to the same MPS, then they must be related by a similarity transform, together with a matrix of phases. We provide two applications of this result: an equivalence between the refinement properties of a state and the divisibility properties of its transfer matrix, and a more general characterisation of tensors that give rise to matrix product states with symmetries.
Canonical forms are central to the analytical understanding of tensor network states, underpinning key results such as the complete classification of one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases within the matrix product state (MPS) framework. Yet, the established theory applies only to uniform MPS with periodic boundary conditions, leaving many physically relevant states beyond its reach. Here we introduce a generalized canonical form for uniform MPS with a boundary matrix, thus extending the analytical MPS framework to a more general setting of wider physical significance. This canonical form reveals that any such MPS can be represented as a block-invertible matrix product operator acting on a structured class of algebraic regular language states that capture its essential long-range and scale-invariant features. Our construction builds on new algebraic results of independent interest that characterize the span and algebra generated by non-semisimple sets of matrices, including a generalized quantum Wielandt's inequality that gives an explicit upper bound on the blocking length at which the fixed-length span stabilizes to an algebra. Together, these results establish a unified theoretical foundation for uniform MPS with boundaries, bridging the gap between periodic and arbitrary-boundary settings, and providing the basis for extending key analytical and classification results of matrix product states to a much broader class of states and operators.
This chapter discusses the properties of matrix product state (MPS). It starts with a simple proof that the wave function generated by DMRG is an MPS. Then three different but equivalent canonical forms or representations of MPS are introduced. An MPS generally has redundant gauge degrees of freedom on each bond linking two neighboring local tensors. One can convert it into a canonical form by taking a canonical transformation to remove the gauge redundancy in the local tensors. Finally, the implementation of symmetries, including both the U(1) and SU(2) symmetries, is discussed.
Canonical forms are central to the analytical understanding of tensor network states, underpinning key results such as the complete classification of one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases within the matrix product state (MPS) framework. Yet, the established theory applies only to uniform MPS with periodic boundary conditions, leaving many physically relevant states beyond its reach. Here we introduce a generalized canonical form for uniform MPS with a boundary matrix, thus extending the analytical MPS framework to a more general setting of wider physical significance. This canonical form reveals that any such MPS can be represented as a block-invertible matrix product operator acting on a structured class of algebraic regular language states that capture its essential long-range and scale-invariant features. Our construction builds on new algebraic results of independent interest that characterize the span and algebra generated by non-semisimple sets of matrices, including a generalized quantum Wielandt's inequality that gives an explicit upper bound on the blocking length at which the fixed-length span stabilizes to an algebra. Together, these results establish a unified theoretical foundation for uniform MPS with boundaries, bridging the gap between periodic and arbitrary-boundary settings, and providing the basis for extending key analytical and classification results of matrix product states to a much broader class of states and operators.
We focus on symmetries related to matrices and vectors appearing in the simulation of quantum many-body systems. Spin Hamiltonians have special matrix-symmetry properties such as persymmetry. Furthermore, the systems may exhibit physical symmetries translating into symmetry properties of the eigenvectors of interest. Both types of symmetry can be exploited in sparse representation formats such as Matrix Product States (MPS) for the desired eigenvectors. This article summarizes symmetries of Hamiltonians for typical physical systems such as the Ising model and lists resulting properties of the related eigenvectors. Based on an overview of MPS (Tensor Trains or Tensor Chains) and their canonical normal forms, we show how symmetry properties of the vector translate into relations between the MPS matrices and, in turn, which symmetry properties result from relations within the MPS matrices. In this context, we analyse different kinds of symmetries and derive appropriate normal forms for MPS representing these symmetries. Exploiting such symmetries by using these normal forms will lead to a reduction in the number of degrees of freedom in the MPS matrices. This article provides a uniform platform for both well-known and new results which are presented from the (multi-)linear algebra point of view.
We study phases of one-dimensional matrix-product states (MPS) when transformations are restricted to symmetric local circuits supplemented with symmetric measurements and feedforward (G-CMF). Building on the framework introduced in Gunn et al., Phys. Rev. B 111, 115110 (2025), we extend the analysis to all finite nilpotent groups for which we obtain a complete classification of G-CMF phases. We construct explicit symmetry-respecting protocols that map any symmetry-protected topological (SPT) or non-normal (GHZ-type) MPS to the trivial phase-and vice versa-with success probability approaching one in the thermodynamic limit. The key technical ingredient is a finite hierarchical structure of irreducible representations of nilpotent groups, which enables successive rounds of symmetric measurements to systematically reduce non-abelian components to abelian ones. Our results demonstrate that allowing symmetric measurements and feedforward fundamentally simplifies the phase structure of 1D systems with nilpotent symmetries: all SPT and non-normal MPS phases collapse into a single asymptotically equivalent phase under G-CMF transformations.
In the Fock representation, we construct matrix product states (MPS) for one-dimensional gapped phases for Zp{\mathbb{Z}}_{p}Zp​ parafermions. From the analysis of irreducibility of MPS, we classify all possible gapped phases of Zp{\mathbb{Z}}_{p}Zp​ parafermions without extra symmetry other than Zp{\mathbb{Z}}_{p}Zp​ charge symmetry, including topological phases, spontaneous symmetry breaking phases, and a trivial phase. For all phases, we find the irreducible forms of local matrices of MPS, which span different kinds of graded algebras. The topological phases are characterized by the nontrivial simple Zp{\mathbb{Z}}_{p}Zp​ graded algebras with the characteristic graded centers, yielding the degeneracies of the full transfer matrix spectra uniquely. However, the spontaneous symmetry breaking phases correspond to the trivial semisimple Zp/n{\mathbb{Z}}_{p/n}Zp/n​ graded algebras, which can be further reduced to the trivial simple Zp/n{\mathbb{Z}}_{p/n}Zp/n​ graded algebras, where nnn is the divisor of ppp. So the present results provide the complete classification of the parafermionic gapped phases and deepen our understanding of topological phases in one dimension.