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arXiv:1907.08603 · Physical Review Letters

Scaling Hypothesis for Matrix Product States

Bram Vanhecke, Jutho Haegeman, Karel Van Acoleyen, Laurens Vanderstraeten, Frank Verstraete

Published Dec 18, 2019• 59 citations
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Abstract

We study critical spin systems and field theories using matrix product states, and formulate a scaling hypothesis in terms of operators, eigenvalues of the transfer matrix, and lattice spacing in the case of field theories. The critical point, exponents, and central charge are determined by optimizing them to obtain a data collapse. We benchmark this method by studying critical Ising and Potts models, where we also obtain a scaling Ansatz for the correlation length and entanglement entropy. The formulation of those scaling functions turns out to be crucial for studying critical quantum field theories on the lattice. For the case of $\ensuremath{\lambda}{\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ with mass parameter ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2}$ and lattice spacing $a$, we demonstrate a double data collapse for the correlation length $\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\xi}(\ensuremath{\mu},\ensuremath{\lambda},D)=\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{\ensuremath{\xi}}((\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c})(\ensuremath{\delta}/a{)}^{\ensuremath{-}1/\ensuremath{\nu}})$ with $D$ the bond dimension, $\ensuremath{\delta}$ the gap between eigenvalues of the transfer matrix, and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}={\ensuremath{\mu}}_{R}^{2}/\ensuremath{\lambda}$ the parameter which fixes the critical quantum field theory.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.123.250604

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We study critical spin systems and field theories using matrix product states, and formulate a scaling hypothesis in terms of operators, eigenvalues of the transfer matrix, and lattice spacing in the case of field theories. The critical point, exponents, and central charge are determined by optimizing them to obtain a data collapse. We benchmark this method by studying critical Ising and Potts models, where we also obtain a scaling Ansatz for the correlation length and entanglement entropy. The formulation of those scaling functions turns out to be crucial for studying critical quantum field theories on the lattice. For the case of \ensuremathλ\ensuremathϕ4\ensuremath{\lambda}{\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}\ensuremathλ\ensuremathϕ4 with mass parameter \ensuremathμ2{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2}\ensuremathμ2 and lattice spacing aaa, we demonstrate a double data collapse for the correlation length \ensuremathδ\ensuremathξ(\ensuremathμ,\ensuremathλ,D)=\ensuremathξ\texttildelow((\ensuremathα\ensuremath−\ensuremathαc)(\ensuremathδ/a)\ensuremath−1/\ensuremathν)\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremath{\xi}(\ensuremath{\mu},\ensuremath{\lambda},D)=\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{\ensuremath{\xi}}((\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c})(\ensuremath{\delta}/a{)}^{\ensuremath{-}1/\ensuremath{\nu}})\ensuremathδ\ensuremathξ(\ensuremathμ,\ensuremathλ,D)=\ensuremathξ\texttildelow​((\ensuremathα\ensuremath−\ensuremathαc​)(\ensuremathδ/a)\ensuremath−1/\ensuremathν) with DDD the bond dimension, \ensuremathδ\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremathδ the gap between eigenvalues of the transfer matrix, and \ensuremathαc=\ensuremathμR2/\ensuremathλ{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}={\ensuremath{\mu}}_{R}^{2}/\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremathαc​=\ensuremathμR2​/\ensuremathλ the parameter which fixes the critical quantum field theory.
In this paper, we apply the formalism of translation invariant (continuous) matrix product states in the thermodynamic limit to (1+1)(1+1)(1+1)-dimensional critical models. Finite bond dimension bounds the entanglement entropy and introduces an effective finite correlation length, so that the state is perturbed away from criticality. The assumption that the scaling hypothesis holds for this kind of perturbation is known in the literature as finite entanglement scaling. We provide further evidence for the validity of finite entanglement scaling and based on this formulate a scaling algorithm to estimate the central charge and critical exponents of the conformally invariant field theories describing the critical models under investigation. The algorithm is applied to three exemplary models; the cMPS version to the nonrelativistic Lieb-Liniger model and the relativistic massless boson, and MPS version to the one-dimensional quantum Ising model at the critical point. Another new aspect to our approach is that we directly use the (c)MPS induced correlation length rather than the bond dimension as scaling parameter. This choice is motivated by several theoretical arguments as well as by the remarkable accuracy of our results.
We set up an effective field theory formulation for the renormalization flow of matrix product states (MPS) with finite bond dimension, focusing on systems exhibiting finite-entanglement scaling close to a conformally invariant critical fixed point. We show that the finite MPS bond dimension \chi χ is equivalent to introducing a perturbation by a relevant operator to the fixed-point Hamiltonian. The fingerprint of this mechanism is encoded in the \chi χ -independent universal transfer matrix’s gap ratios, which are distinct from those predicted by the unperturbed Conformal Field Theory (CFT). This phenomenon defines a renormalization group self-congruent point, where the relevant coupling constant ceases to flow due to a balance of two effects; When increasing \chi χ , the infrared scale, set by the correlation length \xi(\chi) ξ ( χ ) , increases, while the strength of the perturbation at the lattice scale decreases. The presence of a self-congruent point does not alter the validity of the finite-entanglement scaling hypothesis, since the self-congruent point is located at a finite distance from the critical fixed point, well inside the scaling regime of the CFT. We corroborate this framework with numerical evidence from the exact solution of the Ising model and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations of an effective lattice model.
The power of matrix product states to describe infinite-size translational-invariant critical spin chains is investigated. At criticality, the accuracy with which they describe ground-state properties of a system is limited by the size $\ensuremath{\chi}$ of the matrices that form the approximation. This limitation is quantified in terms of the scaling of the half-chain entanglement entropy. In the case of the quantum Ising model, we find $S\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{1}{6}\text{log}\text{ }\ensuremath{\chi}$ with high precision. This result can be understood as the emergence of an effective finite correlation length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\chi}}$ ruling all the scaling properties in the system. We produce six extra pieces of evidence for this finite-$\ensuremath{\chi}$ scaling, namely, the scaling of the correlation length, the scaling of magnetization, the shift of the critical point, the scaling of the entanglement entropy for a finite block of spins, the existence of scaling functions, and the agreement with analogous classical results. All our computations are consistent with a scaling relation of the form ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\chi}}\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\ensuremath{\kappa}}$, with $\ensuremath{\kappa}=2$ for the Ising model. In the case of the Heisenberg model, we find similar results with the value $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\sim}1.37$. We also show how finite-$\ensuremath{\chi}$ scaling allows us to extract critical exponents. These results are obtained using the infinite time evolved block decimation algorithm which works in the thermodynamical limit and are verified to agree with density-matrix renormalization-group results and their classical analog obtained with the corner transfer-matrix renormalization group.
We study the second-order quantum phase transition of massive real scalar field theory with a quartic interaction in (1+11+11+1) dimensions on an infinite spatial lattice using matrix product states. We introduce and apply a naive variational conjugate gradient method, based on the time-dependent variational principle for imaginary time, to obtain approximate ground states, using a related ansatz for excitations to calculate the particle and soliton masses and to obtain the spectral density. We also estimate the central charge using finite-entanglement scaling. Our value for the critical parameter agrees well with recent Monte Carlo results, improving on an earlier study which used the related density matrix normalization group method, verifying that these techniques are well-suited to studying critical field systems. We also obtain critical exponents that agree, as expected, with those of the transverse Ising model. Additionally, we treat the special case of uniform product states (mean field theory) separately, showing that they may be used to investigate noncritical quantum field theories under certain conditions.
We carry out a systematic study of entanglement entropy in relativistic quantum field theory. This is defined as the von Neumann entropy S A = −Tr ρ A logρ A corresponding to the reduced density matrix ρ A of a subsystem A . For the case of a 1+1-dimensional critical system, whose continuum limit is a conformal field theory with central charge c , we re-derive the result of Holzhey et al when A is a finite interval of length in an infinite system, and extend it to many other cases: finite systems, finite temperatures, and when A consists of an arbitrary number of disjoint intervals. For such a system away from its critical point, when the correlation length ξ is large but finite, we show that , where is the number of boundary points of A . These results are verified for a free massive field theory, which is also used to confirm a scaling ansatz for the case of finite size off-critical systems, and for integrable lattice models, such as the Ising and XXZ models, which are solvable by corner transfer matrix methods. Finally the free field results are extended to higher dimensions, and used to motivate a scaling form for the singular part of the entanglement entropy near a quantum phase transition.
We introduce a new paradigm for scaling simulations with projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) for critical strongly correlated systems, allowing for reliable extrapolations of PEPS data with relatively small bond dimensions D. The key ingredient consists of using the effective correlation length ξ for inducing a collapse of data points, f(D,χ)=f(ξ(D,χ)), for arbitrary values of D and the environment bond dimension χ. As such we circumvent the need for extrapolations in χ and can use many distinct data points for a fixed value of D. Here, we need that the PEPSs have been optimized using a fixed-χ gradient method, which can be achieved using a novel tensor-network algorithm for finding fixed points of 2D transfer matrices, or by using the formalism of backwards differentiation. We test our hypothesis on the critical 3D dimer model, the 3D classical Ising model, and the 2D quantum Heisenberg model.