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arXiv:1802.06177 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Symmetry-enforced self-learning Monte Carlo method applied to the Holstein model

Chuang Chen, Xiao Yan Xu, Junwei Liu, G. G. Batrouni, Richard T. Scalettar, Zi Yang Meng

Published Jul 11, 2018• 55 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The self-learning Monte Carlo method (SLMC), using a trained effective model to guide Monte Carlo sampling processes, is a powerful general-purpose numerical method recently introduced to speed up simulations in (quantum) many-body systems. In this Rapid Communication, we further improve the efficiency of SLMC by enforcing physical symmetries on the effective model. We demonstrate its effectiveness in the Holstein Hamiltonian, one of the most fundamental many-body descriptions of electron-phonon coupling. Simulations of the Holstein model are notoriously difficult due to a combination of the typical cubic scaling of fermionic Monte Carlo and the presence of extremely long autocorrelation times. Our method addresses both bottlenecks. This enables simulations on large lattices in the most difficult parameter regions, and an evaluation of the critical point for the charge density wave transition at half filling with high precision. We argue that our work opens a research area of quantum Monte Carlo, providing a general procedure to deal with ergodicity in situations involving Hamiltonians with multiple, distinct low-energy states.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.98.041102

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The self-learning Monte Carlo method (SLMC), using a trained effective model to guide Monte Carlo sampling processes, is a powerful general-purpose numerical method recently introduced to speed up simulations in (quantum) many-body systems. In this Rapid Communication, we further improve the efficiency of SLMC by enforcing physical symmetries on the effective model. We demonstrate its effectiveness in the Holstein Hamiltonian, one of the most fundamental many-body descriptions of electron-phonon coupling. Simulations of the Holstein model are notoriously difficult due to a combination of the typical cubic scaling of fermionic Monte Carlo and the presence of extremely long autocorrelation times. Our method addresses both bottlenecks. This enables simulations on large lattices in the most difficult parameter regions, and an evaluation of the critical point for the charge density wave transition at half filling with high precision. We argue that our work opens a research area of quantum Monte Carlo, providing a general procedure to deal with ergodicity in situations involving Hamiltonians with multiple, distinct low-energy states.
Monte Carlo simulation is an unbiased numerical tool for studying classical and quantum many-body systems. One of its bottlenecks is the lack of a general and efficient update algorithm for large size systems close to the phase transition, for which local updates perform badly. In this Rapid Communication, we propose a general-purpose Monte Carlo method, dubbed self-learning Monte Carlo (SLMC), in which an efficient update algorithm is first learned from the training data generated in trial simulations and then used to speed up the actual simulation. We demonstrate the efficiency of SLMC in a spin model at the phase transition point, achieving a 10–20 times speedup.
The Self-Learning Monte Carlo (SLMC) method is a Monte Carlo approach that has emerged in recent years by integrating concepts from machine learning with conventional Monte Carlo techniques. Designed to accelerate the numerical study of interacting many-body systems, SLMC significantly improves sampling efficiency by constructing an effective model -- via machine learning methods -- based on configurations generated by conventional Monte Carlo methods and then proposes global updates based on the effective model. This enhancement leads to a substantial reduction in autocorrelation time, especially near the critical region, where traditional methods typically suffer from critical slowing down and increased computation complexity. Moreover, SLMC maintains statistical accuracy by implementing a cumulative update scheme that rigorously satisfies the detailed balance condition. And more recent applications have extended the SLMC to convolutional neural networks with applications not only in condensed matter physics but also high-energy physics, quantum chemistry, and quantum simulations. The generic applicability and high computational efficiency make SLMC a powerful and scalable framework for quantum Monte Carlo simulations of strongly correlated electron systems, extending the reach of numerical investigations beyond the limitations of conventional techniques.
Monte Carlo simulation is an unbiased numerical tool for studying classical and quantum many-body systems. One of its bottlenecks is the lack of a general and efficient update algorithm for large size systems close to the phase transition, for which local updates perform badly. In this Rapid Communication, we propose a general-purpose Monte Carlo method, dubbed self-learning Monte Carlo (SLMC), in which an efficient update algorithm is first learned from the training data generated in trial simulations and then used to speed up the actual simulation. We demonstrate the efficiency of SLMC in a spin model at the phase transition point, achieving a 10--20 times speedup.
To evaluate the effectiveness of machine learning in systems with competing interactions, we developed a self-learning quantum Monte Carlo (SLQMC) method to simulate the phase transition in the classical Holstein-spin-fermion model. In SLQMC, machine learning techniques are employed to approximate the free energy, thereby bypassing the need for exact diagonalization and significantly reducing computational cost. We assess the performance of SLQMC using both linear regression and neural network models. Our results show that both models are capable of capturing the phase transition from the antiferromagnetic state to the charge-density-wave state. However, the sampling efficiency decreases near the AFM-CDW phase transition, which is attributed to the increased mean-squared-error of the machine learning model. Additionally, the sampling efficiency decreases with increasing lattice size. This suppression is due to the increased root-mean-squared-error as the machine learning model is applied to a large lattice and the finite-size effect, wherein the energy gap between the ground state and low-energy excited states decreases as the lattice grows. Our findings highlight the necessity of highly accurate machine learning models to simulate theoretical models with complex, competing microscopic interactions on a large lattice.
To evaluate the effectiveness of machine learning in systems with competing interactions, we developed a self-learning quantum Monte Carlo (SLQMC) method to simulate the phase transition in the classical Holstein spin-fermion model. In SLQMC, machine-learning techniques are employed to approximate the free energy, thereby bypassing the need for exact diagonalization and significantly reducing computational cost. We assess the performance of SLQMC using both linear regression and neural network models. Our results show that both models are capable of capturing the phase transition from the antiferromagnetic (AFM) state to the charge-density-wave (CDW) state. However, the sampling efficiency decreases near the AFM-CDW phase transition, which is attributed to the increased mean-squared error of the machine-learning model. Additionally, the sampling efficiency decreases with increasing lattice size. This suppression is due to the increased root-mean-squared error as the machine-learning model is applied to a large lattice and the finite-size effect, wherein the energy gap between the ground state and low-energy excited states decreases as the lattice grows. Our findings highlight the necessity of highly accurate machine-learning models to simulate theoretical models with complex, competing microscopic interactions on a large lattice.
We propose a general way to construct an effective Hamiltonian in the self-learning Monte Carlo method (SLMC), which speeds up Monte Carlo simulations by training an effective model to propose uncorrelated configurations in the Markov chain. Its applications are, however, limited. This is because it is not obvious to find the explicit form of the effective Hamiltonians. Particularly, it is difficult to make trainable effective Hamiltonians including many-body interactions. In order to overcome this critical difficulty, we introduce the Behler-Parrinello neural networks (BPNNs) as effective Hamiltonian without any prior knowledge, which is used to construct the potential-energy surfaces in interacting many particle systems for molecular dynamics. We combine SLMC with BPNN by focusing on a divisibility of Hamiltonian and propose how to construct the elementwise configurations. We apply it to quantum impurity models. We observed significant improvement of the acceptance ratio from 0.01 (the effective Hamiltonian with the explicit form) to 0.76 (BPNN). This drastic improvement implies that the BPNN effective Hamiltonian includes many-body interaction, which is omitted in the effective Hamiltonian with the explicit forms. The BPNNs make SLMC more promising.