Ground-state properties are central to our understanding of quantum many-body systems.At first glance, it seems natural and essential to obtain the ground state before analyzing its properties; however, its exponentially large Hilbert space has made such studies costly, if not prohibitive, on sufficiently large system sizes.Here, we propose an alternative strategy based upon the expectation values of an ensemble of operators and the elusive yet vital quantum constraints between them where the search for ground-state properties simply equates to classical constrained minimization.These quantum constraints are generally obtainable via sampling and then machine learning on a large number of systematically consistent quantum many-body states.We showcase our perspective on one-dimensional fermion chains and spin chains for applicability, effectiveness, caveats, and unique advantages especially for strongly correlated systems, thermodynamic-limit systems, property designs, etc.
Ground-state properties are central to our understanding of quantum many-body systems.At first glance, it seems natural and essential to obtain the ground state before analyzing its properties; however, its exponentially large Hilbert space has made such studies costly, if not prohibitive, on sufficiently large system sizes.Here, we propose an alternative strategy based upon the expectation values of an ensemble of operators and the elusive yet vital quantum constraints between them where the search for ground-state properties simply equates to classical constrained minimization.These quantum constraints are generally obtainable via sampling and then machine learning on a large number of systematically consistent quantum many-body states.We showcase our perspective on one-dimensional fermion chains and spin chains for applicability, effectiveness, caveats, and unique advantages especially for strongly correlated systems, thermodynamic-limit systems, property designs, etc.
Solving the ground state and the ground-state properties of quantum many-body systems is generically a hard task for classical algorithms. For a family of Hamiltonians defined on an m -dimensional space of physical parameters, the ground state and its properties at an arbitrary parameter configuration can be predicted via a machine learning protocol up to a prescribed prediction error ɛ , provided that a sample set (of size N ) of the states can be efficiently prepared and measured. In a recent work [Huang , ], a rigorous guarantee for such a generalization was proved. Unfortunately, an exponential scaling for the provable sample complexity, N = m O ( 1 ɛ ) , was found to be universal for generic gapped Hamiltonians. This result applies to the situation where the dimension of the parameter space is large, while the scaling with the accuracy is not an urgent factor, not entering the realm of more precise learning and prediction. In this work, we consider an alternative relevant scenario, where the effective dimension m is a finite, not necessarily large constant, while the scaling with the prediction error becomes the central concern. By jointly preserving the fundamental properties of density matrices in the learning protocol and utilizing the continuity of quantum states in the parameter range of interest, we rigorously obtain a polynomial sample complexity for predicting quantum many-body states and their properties, with respect to the prediction error ɛ and the number of qubits, n , with N = poly ( ɛ − 1 , n , ln 1 δ ) , where poly denotes a polynomial function, and ( 1 − δ ) is the probability of success. Moreover, if restricted to learning local quantum-state properties, the number of samples can be further reduced to N = poly ( ɛ − 1 , ln n δ ) . Numerical demonstrations confirm our findings, and an alternative approach utilizing statistical learning theory with reproducing kernel Hilbert space achieves consistent results. The mere continuity assumption indicates that our results are not restricted to gapped Hamiltonian systems and properties within the same phase. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Understanding strongly correlated quantum many-body systems requires dealing with a largeconfiguration space comprised of a set of all possible measurable configurations. The total number of configurations grows exponentially with the size of the system, which makes exact numerical calculations impossible for even moderately sized systems. Since the advent of high-temperature superconductivity and the subsequent interest in strongly correlated phases of matter, progress in the field has been marked by ingenuity of the field to overcome these computational limitations. The first techniques to emerge were inspired by quantum chemistry and based on exact diagonalization[1], which is limited to small clusters, and different variants of quantum Monte Carlo[2], that suffers from the sign problem in fermionic and frustrated systems. Circa 1992, the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] became one of the major breakthroughs of the past few decades. Despite the success of DMRG for one-dimensional(1D) and quasi-one-dimensional geometries, extensions to actual two-dimensional systems remain challenging and applications are constrained to long cylinders and strips. One promising alternative is to combine one the oldest methods, variational wave functions (VWFs), with neural networks, which have been used to recently with great success in machine learning. The focus of this dissertation is on developing novel variational Monte Carlo algorithms to make neural network variational wave functions applicable to many problems in quantum many-body physics. These algorithms draw from existing variational wave-function, tensor network, and machine learning methods. We calculate dynamical spectral functions using the vector correction and Chebyshev expansion method. We do finite temperature calculations with minimally entangled thermal states. Finally, we do ground state calculations for the frustrated J1−J2 Heisenberg model. We benchmark these results using restricted Boltzmann machines as the neural network for the the variational wave-functions.--Author's abstract
The study of interacting quantum many-body systems is constrained by the exponential growth of the Hilbert space with system size, which limits both numerical simulations and theoretical understanding. This thesis explores how the interplay between disorder and interactions shapes localization and ergodicity in quantum many-body systems, using the exact diagonalization method, and how machine learning can serve as an alternative approach for studying these systems. We first investigate the many-body localization problem in a one-dimensional SU(2)-invariant random antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain using exact and sparse matrix diagonalization methods. By analyzing energy level gap-ratio statistics, participation ratio, entanglement entropy and the entanglement spectral parameter as a function of disorder strength under di!erent random coupling distributions, we identify clear qualitative di!erences from the widely studied random field Heisenberg chain. For system sizes up to L = 24, signatures of localized behaviour are much less pronounced than in the case of the random field model. Motivated by the limitations of conventional numerical methods, we examine machine learning as a scalable paradigm for many-body physics. Using the Bose- Hubbard model in one and two dimensions as a benchmark, we test HUBBARDNET, a deep neural network architecture, by replacing standard stochastic gradient descent with adaptive moment estimation (ADAM), adjusting the learning rate for improved optimization, and introducing physics-informed output activations that can resolve extremely small wave-function amplitudes. This approach yields ground-state energy errors reduced by orders of magnitude and wave function fidelities exceeding 99%, remaining robust across four decades of interaction strength and over superfluid, Mott-insulating, and quantum chaotic regimes. Beyond energy prediction, the trained models accurately reproduce generalized inverse participation ratios and multifractal dimensions for ground and excited states, capturing localization, delocalization, and multifractality across the spectrum, with excited-state training explicitly guided by fractal dimensions that encode the multifractal properties of the wave functions.
One of the most intriguing areas of physics is the study of strongly correlated many-body systems. In these kinds of systems, a large number of particles interacts via interactions that are strong enough to play a major role in determining the properties of the system, which is particularly interesting when multiple interaction terms compete and cannot be satisfied simultaneously. Examples of phases they realize range from simple magnetism to puzzling phenomena such as superconductivity or topological order. Of special interest in condensed matter are fermionic models which have an extra layer of complexity added by the possibly intricate sign structure of the wave function. \nHowever, exactly solvable models that exhibit the sought-after phenomena are scarce and Hamiltonians that are supposed to model experiments often elude analytical solutions precisely due to the strong interactions. Numerical methods are thus essential to gain insight into these systems and provide an important link between theoretical models and real world experiments. There are many different methods that in principle allow solving a problem numerically exact, most prominently exact diagonalization, tensor network based methods such as DMRG and (quantum) Monte Carlo. Exact diagonalization is certainly the most straightforward technique which allows measuring any observable of interest but its application to interacting models is severely limited by the exponential growth of the Hilbert space with the system size which only allows studying rather small systems. Tensor network methods excel in the study of gapped, one-dimensional systems and while they have shown some impressive results for two-dimensional systems, they need a lot of fine tuning and careful analysis to be considered reliable in this very important domain. Quantum Monte Carlo, on the other hand, is in principle neither limited by the size of the Hilbert space nor by the strength of the interactions and has thus been a tremendously important tool for studying condensed matter systems which is why it is the focus of this thesis. \nIt is necessary to continuously advance existing and develop new techniques to keep up with theoretical as well as with experimental progress. In this thesis, new methods to identify and characterize conventional and novel phases of matter within quantum Monte Carlo are developed and tested on archetypical models of condensed matter. \nIn the first part of this thesis, a method to study entanglement properties of strongly interacting fermionic models in quantum Monte Carlo is presented. Measurements of this kind are needed because some characteristics of a system remain hidden from conventional approaches based on the calculation of correlation functions. Prime examples are systems that realize so-called topological order entailing long-range entanglement that can be positively diagnosed using entanglement techniques. Realizing such measurements in a concrete algorithm is not straightforward for fermions. A large section of this part is thus devoted to developing a solution to the problem of implementing entanglement measurements and benchmarking the results against known data. \nThe second part is concerned with a truly novel and recent approach to the many-body problem, namely the symbiosis of machine learning and quantum Monte Carlo techniques. Out of the many different possibilities to combine the two, this part is concerne with exploring ways in which machine learning can help to effortlessly explore phase diagrams of hitherto unknown Hamiltonians. \nDespite the power and versatility of quantum Monte Carlo techniques, it does suffer from one significant weakness called the fermion sign problem. At its core related to the peculiar exchange statistics of fermions, it is in principle merely a technical problem of the Monte Carlo procedure but one that actually prohibits the use of Monte Carlo methods for a large number of interesting problems. The sign problem has been known for a long time but remains unsolved to this day. Thus, it is time to approach the problem from a different perspective with the hope of learning something new that can either help to better understand the problem itself or the properties of the models affected by it. Both of the two major research areas, entanglement measures and machine learning, are capable of providing such new perspectives and the sign problem will be revisited in more detail in the context of each of them.
A fundamental problem in quantum many-body physics is that of finding ground states of local Hamiltonians. A number of recent works gave provably efficient machine learning (ML) algorithms for learning ground states. Specifically, [Huang et al. Science 2022], introduced an approach for learning properties of the ground state of an n-qubit gapped local Hamiltonian H from only nO(1) data points sampled from Hamiltonians in the same phase of matter. This was subsequently improved by [Lewis et al. Nature Communications 2024], to O(logn) samples when the geometry of the n-qubit system is known. In this work, we introduce two approaches that achieve a constant sample complexity, independent of system size n, for learning ground state properties. Our first algorithm consists of a simple modification of the ML model used by Lewis et al. and applies to a property of interest known beforehand. Our second algorithm, which applies even if a description of the property is not known, is a deep neural network model. While empirical results showing the performance of neural networks have been demonstrated, to our knowledge, this is the first rigorous sample complexity bound on a neural network model for predicting ground state properties. We also perform numerical experiments that confirm the improved scaling of our approach compared to earlier results.
In quantum many-body problems, one of the main difficulties comes from the description of non-negligible interactions which require, at least in principle, an exponential amount of information. Recently, in the context of spin glasses and Boltzmann machines, it has been demonstrated that systematic machine learning of the wave function can reduce these issues to a tractable computational problem. In this work, we apply this approach to a different situation, i.e. the problem of finding the ground state of a given quantum system made of electrons, entirely described by its Hamiltonian operator, and by utilizing feedforward neural networks. Although still in the shape of a proof of concept, one can already observe that this seminal idea is able to substantially simplify the complexity of this peculiar, and important, problem.