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arXiv:2103.01265 · Physical review. E

Optimal sampling of dynamical large deviations via matrix product states

Luke Causer, Mari Carmen Bañuls, Juan P. Garrahan

Published Jun 28, 2021• 27 citations
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Abstract

The large deviation statistics of dynamical observables is encoded in the spectral properties of deformed Markov generators. Recent works have shown that tensor network methods are well suited to compute accurately the relevant leading eigenvalues and eigenvectors. However, the efficient generation of the corresponding rare trajectories is a harder task. Here, we show how to exploit the matrix product state approximation of the dominant eigenvector to implement an efficient sampling scheme which closely resembles the optimal (so-called "Doob") dynamics that realizes the rare events. We demonstrate our approach on three well-studied lattice models, the Fredrickson-Andersen and East kinetically constrained models, and the symmetric simple exclusion process. We discuss how to generalize our approach to higher dimensions.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.103.062144

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The large deviation statistics of dynamical observables is encoded in the spectral properties of deformed Markov generators. Recent works have shown that tensor network methods are well suited to compute accurately the relevant leading eigenvalues and eigenvectors. However, the efficient generation of the corresponding rare trajectories is a harder task. Here, we show how to exploit the matrix product state approximation of the dominant eigenvector to implement an efficient sampling scheme which closely resembles the optimal (so-called "Doob") dynamics that realizes the rare events. We demonstrate our approach on three well-studied lattice models, the Fredrickson-Andersen and East kinetically constrained models, and the symmetric simple exclusion process. We discuss how to generalize our approach to higher dimensions.
Recent work has shown the effectiveness of tensor network methods for computing large deviation functions in constrained stochastic models in the infinite time limit. Here we show that these methods can also be used to study the statistics of dynamical observables at arbitrary finite time. This is a harder problem because, in contrast to the infinite time case, where only the extremal eigenstate of a tilted Markov generator is relevant, for finite time the whole spectrum plays a role. We show that finite time dynamical partition sums can be computed efficiently and accurately in one dimension using matrix product states and describe how to use such results to generate rare event trajectories on demand. We apply our methods to the Fredrickson-Andersen and East kinetically constrained models and to the symmetric simple exclusion process, unveiling dynamical phase diagrams in terms of counting field and trajectory time. We also discuss extensions of this method to higher dimensions.
We use projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) to calculate the large deviation statistics of the dynamical activity of the two-dimensional East model, and the two-dimensional symmetric simple exclusion process (SSEP) with open boundaries, in lattices of up to 40×40 sites. We show that at long times both models have phase transitions between active and inactive dynamical phases. For the 2D East model we find that this trajectory transition is of the first order, while for the SSEP we find indications of a second order transition. We then show how the PEPS can be used to implement a trajectory sampling scheme capable of directly accessing rare trajectories. We also discuss how the methods described here can be extended to study rare events at finite times.
Here we demonstrate that tensor network techniques-originally devised for the analysis of quantum many-body problems-are well suited for the detailed study of rare event statistics in kinetically constrained models (KCMs). As concrete examples, we consider the Fredrickson-Andersen and East models, two paradigmatic KCMs relevant to the modeling of glasses. We show how variational matrix product states allow us to numerically approximate-systematically and with high accuracy-the leading eigenstates of the tilted dynamical generators, which encode the large deviation statistics of the dynamics. Via this approach, we can study system sizes beyond what is possible with other methods, allowing us to characterize in detail the finite size scaling of the trajectory-space phase transition of these models, the behavior of spectral gaps, and the spatial structure and "entanglement" properties of dynamical phases. We discuss the broader implications of our results.
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the dissipative quantum East model via numerical tensor networks. We use matrix product states to represent evolution under quantum-jump unravellings for sizes beyond those accessible to exact diagonalization. This allows us to demonstrate that dynamical heterogeneity accompanies slow relaxation, in analogy with what is seen in classical glassy systems. Furthermore, using variational matrix product operators we (i) compute the spectral gap of the Lindbladian and show that glassiness is enhanced in the presence of weak quantum fluctuations compared to the pure classical case, and (ii) obtain the dynamical large deviations by calculating the leading eigenvector of the tilted Lindbladian and find clear evidence for a first-order active-inactive dynamical phase transition. We also show how to directly sample the rare quantum trajectories associated to the large deviations.
We study the dynamical large deviations of the classical stochastic symmetric simple exclusion process (SSEP) by means of numerical matrix product states. We show that for half filling, long-time trajectories with a large enough imbalance between the number hops in even and odd bonds of the lattice belong to distinct symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. Using tensor network techniques, we obtain the large deviation (LD) phase diagram in terms of counting fields conjugate to the dynamical activity and the total hop imbalance. We show the existence of high activity trivial and nontrivial SPT phases (classified according to string order parameters) separated by either a critical phase or a critical point. Using the leading eigenstate of the tilted generator, obtained from infinite-system density-matrix renormalization group simulations, we construct a near-optimal dynamics for sampling the LDs, and show that the SPT phases manifest at the level of rare stochastic trajectories. We also show how to extend these results to other filling fractions, and discuss generalizations to asymmetric SEPs.
We propose a tensor-network (TN) approach for solving classical optimization problems that is inspired by spectral filtering and sampling on quantum states. We first shift and scale an Ising Hamiltonian of the cost function so that all eigenvalues become non-negative and the ground states correspond to the the largest eigenvalues, which are then amplified by power iteration. We represent the transformed Hamiltonian as a matrix product operator (MPO) and form an immense power of this object via truncated MPO-MPO contractions, embedding the resulting operator into a matrix product state for sampling in the computational basis. In contrast to the density-matrix renormalization group, our approach provides a straightforward route to systematic improvement by increasing the bond dimension and is better at avoiding local minima. We also study the performance of this power method in the context of a higher-order Ising Hamiltonian on a heavy-hexagonal lattice, making a comparison with simulated annealing. These results highlight the potential of quantum-inspired algorithms for solving optimization problems and provide a baseline for assessing and developing quantum algorithms.