Quantum embedding approaches involve the self-consistent optimization of a local fragment of a strongly correlated system, entangled with the wider environment. The `energy-weighted' density matrix embedding theory (EwDMET) was established recently as a way to systematically control the resolution of the fragment-environment coupling and allow for true quantum fluctuations over this boundary to be self-consistently optimized within a fully static framework. In this work, we reformulate the algorithm to ensure that EwDMET can be considered equivalent to an optimal and rigorous truncation of the self-consistent dynamics of dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). A practical limitation of these quantum embedding approaches is often a numerical fitting of a self-consistent object defining the quantum effects. However, we show here that in this formulation, all numerical fitting steps can be entirely circumvented, via an effective Dyson equation in the space of truncated dynamics. This provides a robust and analytic self-consistency for the method, and an ability to systematically and rigorously converge to DMFT from a static, wave function perspective. We demonstrate that this improved approach can solve the correlated dynamics and phase transitions of the Bethe lattice Hubbard model in infinite dimensions, as well as one- and two-dimensional Hubbard models where we clearly show the benefits of this rapidly convergent basis for correlation-driven fluctuations. This systematically truncated description of the effective dynamics of the problem also allows access to quantities such as Fermi liquid parameters and renormalized dynamics, and demonstrates a numerically efficient, systematic convergence to the zero-temperature dynamical mean-field theory limit.
Quantum embedding approaches involve the self-consistent optimization of a local fragment of a strongly correlated system, entangled with the wider environment. The `energy-weighted' density matrix embedding theory (EwDMET) was established recently as a way to systematically control the resolution of the fragment-environment coupling and allow for true quantum fluctuations over this boundary to be self-consistently optimized within a fully static framework. In this work, we reformulate the algorithm to ensure that EwDMET can be considered equivalent to an optimal and rigorous truncation of the self-consistent dynamics of dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). A practical limitation of these quantum embedding approaches is often a numerical fitting of a self-consistent object defining the quantum effects. However, we show here that in this formulation, all numerical fitting steps can be entirely circumvented, via an effective Dyson equation in the space of truncated dynamics. This provides a robust and analytic self-consistency for the method, and an ability to systematically and rigorously converge to DMFT from a static, wave function perspective. We demonstrate that this improved approach can solve the correlated dynamics and phase transitions of the Bethe lattice Hubbard model in infinite dimensions, as well as one- and two-dimensional Hubbard models where we clearly show the benefits of this rapidly convergent basis for correlation-driven fluctuations. This systematically truncated description of the effective dynamics of the problem also allows access to quantities such as Fermi liquid parameters and renormalized dynamics, and demonstrates a numerically efficient, systematic convergence to the zero-temperature dynamical mean-field theory limit.
The dynamical fluctuations in approaches such as dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) allow for the self-consistent optimization of a local fragment, hybridized with a true correlated environment. We show that these correlated environmental fluctuations can instead be efficiently captured in a wave function perspective in a computationally cheap, frequency-independent, zero-temperature approach. This allows for a systematically improvable, short-time wave function analog to DMFT, which entails a number of computational and numerical benefits. We demonstrate this approach to solve the correlated dynamics of the paradigmatic Bethe lattice Hubbard model, as well as detailing cluster extensions in the one-dimensional Hubbard chain where we clearly show the benefits of this rapidly convergent description of correlated environmental fluctuations.
We present a multiscale approach to efficiently embed an ab initio correlated chemical fragment described by its energy-weighted density matrices and entangled with a wider mean-field many-electron system. This approach, first presented by Fertitta and Booth [Phys. Rev. B 98, 235132 (2018)], is here extended to account for realistic long-range interactions and broken symmetry states. The scheme allows for a systematically improvable description in the range of correlated fluctuations out of the fragment into the system, via a self-consistent optimization of a coupled auxiliary mean-field system. It is discussed that the method has rigorous limits equivalent to the existing quantum embedding approaches of both dynamical mean-field theory and density matrix embedding theory, to which this method is compared, and the importance of these correlated fluctuations is demonstrated. We derive a self-consistent local energy functional within the scheme and demonstrate the approach for hydrogen rings, where quantitative accuracy is achieved despite only a single atom being explicitly treated.
Dynamical and variational frameworks have long been viewed as distinct paradigms. In particular, in quantum embedding (QE) frameworks, dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) captures nonperturbative dynamical correlations through a frequency-dependent self-energy, while the Gutzwiller approximation (GA) is formulated in terms of a variationally optimized ground-state wavefunction. Here we bridge these perspectives, proving that the ghost-Gutzwiller approximation (ghost-GA), which also admits a density-matrix-matching QE formulation known as ghost density matrix embedding theory (ghost-DMET), becomes strictly equivalent to DMFT in the limit of infinitely many auxiliary bath modes. This formal unification has immediate consequences. In particular, it yields a rigorous finite-temperature extension of ghost-GA and shows that the physical Green's function can be determined from static expectation values of the embedding Hamiltonians, providing a route to computational studies of competing phases in strongly correlated matter with DMFT-level accuracy, while bypassing the need to calculate dynamical spectra with conventional impurity solvers. More broadly, it shows that the variational ghost-GA, the density-matrix-matching ghost-DMET formulation, and the dynamical DMFT description are not separate constructions, but complementary formulations of the same QE structure, thereby providing a concrete formal basis for future controlled extensions beyond DMFT.
We present a time-domain iteration scheme for solving the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT) self-consistent equations using retarded Green's functions in real time. Unlike conventional DMFT approaches that operate in imaginary time or frequency space, our scheme operates directly with real-time quantities. This makes it particularly suitable for near-term quantum computing hardware with limited Hilbert spaces, where real-time propagation can be efficiently implemented via Trotterization or variational quantum algorithms. We map the effective impurity problem to a finite one-dimensional chain with a small number of bath sites, solved via exact diagonalization as a proof-of-concept. The hybridization function is iteratively updated through time-domain fitting until self-consistency. We demonstrate stable convergence across a wide range of interaction strengths for the half-filled Hubbard model on a Bethe lattice, successfully capturing the metal-to-insulator transition. Despite using limited time resolution and a minimal bath discretization, the spectral functions clearly exhibit the emergence of Hubbard bands and the suppression of spectral weight at the Fermi level as interaction strength increases. This overcomes major limitations of two-site DMFT approximations by delivering detailed spectral features while preserving efficiency and compatibility with quantum computing platforms through real-time dynamics.
We introduce extended density matrix embedding theory (EDMET), a static quantum embedding theory explicitly self-consistent with respect to local two-body physics. This overcomes the biggest practical and conceptual limitation of more traditional one-body embedding methods, namely the lack of screening and treatment of longer-range interactions. This algebraic zero-temperature embedding augments a local interacting cluster model with a minimal number of bosons from a description of the full system correlations via the random phase approximation, and admits an analytic approach to build a self-consistent Coulomb-exchange-correlation kernel. For extended Hubbard models with nonlocal interactions, this leads to the accurate description of phase transitions, static quantities, and dynamics. We also move towards ab initio systems via the Parriser-Parr-Pople model of conjugated coronene derivatives, finding good agreement with experimental optical gaps.
In complex systems, it is often the case that the region of interest forms only one part of a much larger system. The idea of joining two different quantum simulations-a high level calculation on the active region of interest, and a low level calculation on its environment-formally defines a quantum embedding. While any combination of techniques constitutes an embedding, several rigorous formalisms have emerged that provide for exact feedback between the embedded system and its environment. These three formulations: density functional embedding, Green's function embedding, and density matrix embedding, respectively, use the single-particle density, single-particle Green's function, and single-particle density matrix as the quantum variables of interest. Many excellent reviews exist covering these methods individually. However, a unified presentation of the different formalisms is so far lacking. Indeed, the various languages commonly used, functional equations for density functional embedding, diagrammatics for Green's function embedding, and entanglement arguments for density matrix embedding, make the three formulations appear vastly different. In this Account, we introduce the basic equations of all three formulations in such a way as to highlight their many common intellectual strands. While we focus primarily on a straightforward theoretical perspective, we also give a brief overview of recent applications and possible future developments. The first section starts with density functional embedding, where we introduce the key embedding potential via the Euler equation. We then discuss recent work concerning the treatment of the nonadditive kinetic potential, before describing mean-field density functional embedding and wave function in density functional embedding. We finish the section with extensions to time-dependence and excited states. The second section is devoted to Green's function embedding. Here, we use the Dyson equation to obtain equations that parallel as closely as possible the density functional embedding equations, with the hybridization playing the role of the embedding potential. Embedding a high-level self-energy within a low-level self-energy is treated analogously to wave function in density functional embedding. The numerical computation of the high-level self-energy allows us to briefly introduce the bath representation in the quantum impurity problem. We then consider translationally invariant systems to bring in the important dynamical mean-field theory. Recent developments to incorporate screening and long-range interactions are discussed. The third section concerns density matrix embedding. Here, we first highlight some mathematical complications associated with a simple Euler equation derivation, arising from the open nature of fragments. This motivates the density matrix embedding theory, where we use the Schmidt decomposition to represent the entanglement through bath orbitals. The resulting impurity plus bath formulation resembles that of dynamical mean-field theory. We discuss the numerical self-consistency associated with using a high-level correlated wave function with a mean-field low-level treatment, and connect the resulting numerical inversion to that used in density functional embedding. We finish with perspectives on the future of all three methods.