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arXiv:1809.09927 · Condensed Matter Physics

A machine learning approach to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in classical and quantum models

M. Richter, Хан, Trivedi Trivedi, Maciej M. Maśka

Published Sep 1, 2018• 20 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is a very specific phase transition where all thermodynamic quantities are smooth.Therefore, it is difficult to determine the critical temperature in a precise way.In this paper we demonstrate how neural networks can be used to perform this task.In particular, we study how the accuracy of the transition identification depends on the way the neural networks are trained.We apply our approach to three different systems: (i) the classical XY model, (ii) the phase-fermion model, where classical and quantum degrees of freedom are coupled and (iii) the quantum XY model.

DOI
10.5488/cmp.21.33602

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The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is a very specific phase transition where all thermodynamic quantities are smooth.Therefore, it is difficult to determine the critical temperature in a precise way.In this paper we demonstrate how neural networks can be used to perform this task.In particular, we study how the accuracy of the transition identification depends on the way the neural networks are trained.We apply our approach to three different systems: (i) the classical XY model, (ii) the phase-fermion model, where classical and quantum degrees of freedom are coupled and (iii) the quantum XY model.
We propose two machine-learning methods based on neural networks, which we respectively call the phase-classification method and the temperature-identification method, for detecting different types of phase transitions in the XXZ models without prior knowledge of their critical temperatures. The XXZ models have exchange couplings which are anisotropic in the spin space where the strength is represented by a parameter $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}(>0)$. The models exhibit second-order phase transition when $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}>1$, but the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition when $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}<1$. In the phase-classification method, the neural network is trained using spin or vortex configurations of well-known classical spin models other than the XXZ models, e.g., the Ising models and the XY models, to classify those of the XXZ models to corresponding phases. We demonstrate that the trained neural network successfully detects the phase transitions for both $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}>1$ and $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}<1$, and the evaluated critical temperatures coincide well with those evaluated by conventional numerical calculations. In the temperature-identification method, on the other hand, the neural network is trained so as to identify temperatures at which the input spin or vortex configurations are generated by the Monte Carlo thermalization. The critical temperatures are evaluated by analyzing the optimized weight matrix, which coincides with the result of numerical calculation for the second-order phase transition in the Ising-like XXZ model with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=1.05$ but cannot be determined uniquely for the BKT transition in the XY-like XXZ model with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0.95$.
Using a supervised neural network (NN) trained once on a one-dimensional lattice of 200 sites, we calculate the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless phase transitions of the two-dimensional (2D) classical XY and the 2D generalized classical XY models. In particular, both the bulk quantities Binder ratios and the spin states of the studied systems are employed to construct the needed configurations for the NN prediction. By applying semiempirical finite-size scaling to the relevant data, the critical points obtained by the NN approach agree well with the known results established in the literature. This implies that for each of the considered models, the determination of its various phases requires only a little information. The outcomes presented here demonstrate convincingly that the employed universal NN is not only valid for the symmetry breaking related phase transitions, but also works for calculating the critical points of the phase transitions associated with topology. The efficiency of the used NN in the computation is examined by carrying out several detailed benchmark calculations.
The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition is a typical topological phase transition defined between binding and unbinding states of vortices and antivortices, which is not accompanied by spontaneous symmetry breaking. It is known that the BKT transition is difficult to detect from thermodynamic quantities such as specific heat and magnetic susceptibility because of the absence of anomaly in free energy and significant finite-size effects. Therefore, methods based on statistical mechanics which are commonly used to discuss phase transitions cannot be easily applied to the BKT transition. In recent years, several attempts to detect the BKT transition using machine-learning methods based on image recognition techniques have been reported. However, it has turned out that the detection is difficult even for machine learning methods because of the absence of trivial order parameters and symmetry breaking. Most of the methods proposed so far require prior knowledge about the models and/or preprocessing of input data for feature engineering, which is problematic in terms of the general applicability. In this article, we introduce recent development of the machine-learning methods to detect the BKT transitions in several spin models. Specifically, we demonstrate the success of two new methods named temperature-identification method and phase-classification method for detecting the BKT transitions in the q-state clock model and the XXZ model. This progress is expected to sublimate the machine-learning-based study of spin models for exploring new physics beyond simple benchmark test.
Using a supervised neural network (NN) trained once on a one-dimensional lattice of 200 sites, we calculate the Berezinskii--Kosterlitz--Thouless phase transitions of the two-dimensional (2D) classical XYXYXY and the 2D generalized classical XYXYXY models. In particular, both the bulk quantities Binder ratios and the spin states of the studied systems are employed to construct the needed configurations for the NN prediction. By applying semiempirical finite-size scaling to the relevant data, the critical points obtained by the NN approach agree well with the known results established in the literature. This implies that for each of the considered models, the determination of its various phases requires only a little information. The outcomes presented here demonstrate convincingly that the employed universal NN is not only valid for the symmetry breaking related phase transitions, but also works for calculating the critical points of the phase transitions associated with topology. The efficiency of the used NN in the computation is examined by carrying out several detailed benchmark calculations.
The authors extend the recent successful application of neural networks fordistinguishing phases of matter to the case of topologically driven phase transitions. They demonstrate that supervised networks correctly identify the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the two-dimensional classical XY model. However, their analysis suggests that a naive classification of phases is based on bulk features, rather than on detecting local topological defects. While they show that it is possible to fine-tune a network to recognize vortices, it generally remains a difficult task to detect topological defects without $a\phantom{\rule{0.333em}{0ex}}p\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}r\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}r\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i$ knowledge.
In this paper, we apply machine learning methods to study phase transitions in certain statistical mechanical models on the two-dimensional lattices, whose transitions involve nonlocal or topological properties, including site and bond percolations, the XY model, and the generalized XY model. We find that using just one hidden layer in a fully connected neural network, the percolation transition can be learned and the data collapse by using the average output layer gives correct estimate of the critical exponent ν. We also study the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, which involves binding and unbinding of topological defects, vortices and antivortices, in the classical XY model. The generalized XY model contains richer phases, such as the nematic phase, the paramagnetic and the quasi-long-range ferromagnetic phases, and we also apply machine learning method to it. We obtain a consistent phase diagram from the network trained with only data along the temperature axis at two particular parameter Δ values, where Δ is the relative weight of pure XY coupling. Aside from using the spin configurations (either angles or spin components) as the input information in a convolutional neural network, we devise a feature engineering approach using the histograms of the spin orientations in order to train the network to learn the three phases in the generalized XY model and demonstrate that it indeed works. The trained network by using system size L×L can be used to the phase diagram for other sizes (L^{'}×L^{'}, where L^{'}≠L) without any further training.