Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2303.11207 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Investigating topological order using recurrent neural networks

Mohamed Hibat-Allah, Roger G. Melko, Juan Carrasquilla

Published Aug 22, 2023• 27 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs), originally developed for natural language processing, hold great promise for accurately describing strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. Here, we employ two-dimensional RNNs to investigate two prototypical quantum many-body Hamiltonians exhibiting topological order. Specifically, we demonstrate that RNN wave functions can effectively capture the topological order of the toric code and a Bose-Hubbard spin liquid on the kagome lattice by estimating their topological entanglement entropies. We also find that RNNs favor coherent superpositions of minimally entangled states over minimally entangled states themselves. Overall, our findings demonstrate that RNN wave functions constitute a powerful tool to study phases of matter beyond Landau's symmetry-breaking paradigm.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.108.075152

Related papers

Recurrent neural network wave functions for Rydberg atom arrays on kagome lattice

Mohamed Hibat-Allah, Ejaaz Merali, Giacomo Torlai +2 more

Abstract Rydberg atom array experiments have demonstrated the ability to act as powerful quantum simulators, preparing strongly-correlated phases of matter which are challenging to study for conventional computer simulations. A key direction has been the implementation of interactions on frustrated geometries, in an effort to prepare exotic many-body states such as spin liquids and glasses. In this paper, we apply two-dimensional recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions to study the ground states of Rydberg atom arrays on the kagome lattice. We implement an annealing scheme to find the RNN variational parameters in regions of the phase diagram where exotic phases may occur, corresponding to rough optimization landscapes. For Rydberg atom array Hamiltonians studied previously on the kagome lattice, our RNN ground states show no evidence of exotic spin liquid or emergent glassy behavior. In the latter case, we argue that the presence of a non-zero Edwards-Anderson order parameter is an artifact of the long autocorrelations times experienced with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, and we show that autocorrelations can be systematically reduced by increasing numerical effort. This result emphasizes the utility of autoregressive models, such as RNNs, in conjunction with QMC, to explore Rydberg atom array physics on frustrated lattices and beyond.

arXiv:2405.20384•Communications Physics•Jul 25, 2025•6 citations

Neural Network Quantum States for the Interacting Hofstadter Model with Higher Local Occupations and Long-Range Interactions

Fabian Döschl, Felix A. Palm, Hannah Lange +2 more

Due to their immense representative power, neural network quantum states (NQS) have gained significant interest in current research. In recent advances in the field of NQS, it has been demonstrated that this approach can compete with state-of-the-art numerical techniques, making NQS a compelling alternative, in particular for the simulation of large, two-dimensional quantum systems. In this study, we show that recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions can be employed to study systems relevant to current research in quantum many-body physics. Specifically, we employ a 2D tensorized gated RNN to explore the bosonic Hofstadter model with a variable local Hilbert space cut-off and long-range interactions. At first, we benchmark the RNN-NQS for the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard (HBH) Hamiltonian on a square lattice. We find that this method is, despite the complexity of the wave function, capable of efficiently identifying and representing most ground state properties. Afterwards, we apply the method to an even more challenging model for current methods, namely the Hofstadter model with long-range interactions. This model describes Rydberg-dressed atoms on a lattice subject to a synthetic magnetic field. We study systems of size up to $12 \times 12$ sites and identify three different regimes by tuning the interaction range and the filling fraction $ν$. In addition to phases known from the HBH model at short-ranged interaction, we observe bubble crystals and Wigner crystals for long-ranged interactions. Especially interesting is the evidence of a bubble crystal phase on a lattice, as this gives experiments a starting point for the search of clustered liquid phases, possibly hosting non-Abelian anyon excitations. In our work we show that NQS are an efficient and reliable simulation method for quantum systems, which are the subject of current research.

arXiv:2405.04472•May 7, 2024•2 citations

Exact Machine Learning Topological States

Dong-Ling Deng, Xiaopeng Li, S. Das Sarma

Artificial neural networks play a prominent role in the rapidly growing field of machine learning and are recently introduced to quantum many-body systems to tackle complex problems. Here, we find that even topological states with long-range quantum entanglement can be represented with classical artificial neural networks. This is demonstrated by using two concrete spin systems, the one-dimensional (1D) symmetry-protected topological cluster state and the 2D toric code state with an intrinsic topological order. For both cases we show rigorously that the topological ground states can be represented by short-range neural networks in an {\it exact} fashion. This neural network representation, in addition to being exact, is surprisingly {\it efficient} as the required number of hidden neurons is as small as the number of physical spins. Our exact construction of topological-order neuron-representation demonstrates explicitly the exceptional power of neural networks in describing exotic quantum states, and at the same time provides valuable topological data to supervise machine learning topological quantum orders in generic lattice models.

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Sep 28, 2016•10 citations

Neural network quantum states for the interacting Hofstadter model with higher local occupations and long-range interactions

Fabian Döschl, Felix A. Palm, Hannah Lange +2 more

Due to their immense representative power, neural network quantum states (NQS) have gained significant interest in current research. In recent advances in the field of NQS, it has been demonstrated that this approach can compete with state-of-the-art numerical techniques, making NQS a compelling alternative, in particular for the simulation of large, two-dimensional (2D) quantum systems. In this study, we show that recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions can be employed to study systems relevant to current research in quantum many-body physics. Specifically, we employ a 2D tensorized gated RNN to explore the bosonic Hofstadter model with a variable local Hilbert space cutoff and long-range interactions. At first, we benchmark the RNN-NQS for the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard (HBH) Hamiltonian on a square lattice. We find that this method, despite the complexity of the wave function, is capable of efficiently identifying and representing most ground-state properties. Afterwards, we apply the method to an even more challenging model for current methods, namely, the Hofstadter model with long-range interactions. This model describes Rydberg-dressed atoms on a lattice subject to a synthetic magnetic field. We study systems of size up to $12\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}12$ sites and identify three different regimes by tuning the interaction range and the filling fraction $\ensuremath{\nu}$. In addition to phases known from the HBH model at short-range interaction, we observe bubble crystals and Wigner crystals for long-range interactions. Especially interesting is the evidence of a bubble crystal phase on a lattice, as this gives experiments a starting point for the search of clustered liquid phases, possibly hosting non-Abelian anyon excitations. In our work, we show that NQS are an efficient and reliable simulation method for quantum systems, which are the subject of current research. In particular, we demonstrate the ability of this method to simulate challenging systems with long-range interactions.

Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jan 8, 2025•2 citations

Fermionic topological quantum states as tensor networks

Carolin Wille, Oliver Buerschaper, Jens Eisert

Tensor network states, and in particular projected entangled pair states, play an important role in the description of strongly correlated quantum lattice systems. They do not only serve as variational states in numerical simulation methods, but also provide a framework for classifying phases of quantum matter and capture notions of topological order in a stringent and rigorous language. The rapid development in this field for spin models and bosonic systems has not yet been mirrored by an analogous development for fermionic models. In this work, we introduce a tensor network formalism capable of capturing notions of topological order for quantum systems with fermionic components. At the heart of the formalism are axioms of fermionic matrix-product operator injectivity, stable under concatenation. Building upon that, we formulate a Grassmann number tensor network ansatz for the ground state of fermionic twisted quantum double models. A specific focus is put on the paradigmatic example of the fermionic toric code. This work shows that the program of describing topologically ordered systems using tensor networks carries over to fermionic models.

arXiv:1609.02574•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jun 21, 2017•30 citations

The toric code under antiferromagnetic isotropic Heisenberg interactions

Won Jang, Robert Peters, Thore Posske

We investigate the impact of an isotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg perturbation on the toric code, focusing on the resulting quantum phase transition and the nature of the phase that emerges beyond topological order. Using neural-network quantum states (NQS), we compute ground states over a wide range of Heisenberg couplings while fully respecting the exact symmetries of the model. In the weak-coupling regime, the numerical results are in excellent agreement with an effective low-energy description derived from a Schrieffer-Wolff (SW) transformation, providing analytic control over the perturbative breakdown of topological order. We show that the Heisenberg perturbation only renormalizes local operators at low orders, whereas mixing between topological sectors occurs only at a perturbative order proportional to the system size. At intermediate values of the Heisenberg interaction, the topological phase breaks down. We estimate the critical point through a combination of the fidelity susceptibility and the logarithmic susceptibility of non-contractible Wilson loops for various system sizes. Furthermore, we utilize the topological entanglement entropy to provide a comprehensive characterization of the phase transition. Beyond the transition, an antiferromagnetic $\pm X/\pm Z$ Néel phase emerges, characterized by a fourfold-degenerate symmetry-broken manifold, which is explicitly probed using staggered-magnetization-based diagnostics. Our results show how local two-spin interactions, which naturally arise in realistic implementations of the toric code, drive the breakdown of topological order. Moreover, we establish the SW approach as a systematic framework for analyzing such perturbations in combination with variational many-body methods.

cond-mat.str-elCross-listedarXiv:2603.05707•Physical Review Research•Mar 9, 2026•0 citations
Recurrent neural networks (RNNs), originally developed for natural language processing, hold great promise for accurately describing strongly correlated quantum many-body systems. Here, we employ two-dimensional RNNs to investigate two prototypical quantum many-body Hamiltonians exhibiting topological order. Specifically, we demonstrate that RNN wave functions can effectively capture the topological order of the toric code and a Bose-Hubbard spin liquid on the kagome lattice by estimating their topological entanglement entropies. We also find that RNNs favor coherent superpositions of minimally entangled states over minimally entangled states themselves. Overall, our findings demonstrate that RNN wave functions constitute a powerful tool to study phases of matter beyond Landau's symmetry-breaking paradigm.
Abstract Rydberg atom array experiments have demonstrated the ability to act as powerful quantum simulators, preparing strongly-correlated phases of matter which are challenging to study for conventional computer simulations. A key direction has been the implementation of interactions on frustrated geometries, in an effort to prepare exotic many-body states such as spin liquids and glasses. In this paper, we apply two-dimensional recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions to study the ground states of Rydberg atom arrays on the kagome lattice. We implement an annealing scheme to find the RNN variational parameters in regions of the phase diagram where exotic phases may occur, corresponding to rough optimization landscapes. For Rydberg atom array Hamiltonians studied previously on the kagome lattice, our RNN ground states show no evidence of exotic spin liquid or emergent glassy behavior. In the latter case, we argue that the presence of a non-zero Edwards-Anderson order parameter is an artifact of the long autocorrelations times experienced with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, and we show that autocorrelations can be systematically reduced by increasing numerical effort. This result emphasizes the utility of autoregressive models, such as RNNs, in conjunction with QMC, to explore Rydberg atom array physics on frustrated lattices and beyond.
Due to their immense representative power, neural network quantum states (NQS) have gained significant interest in current research. In recent advances in the field of NQS, it has been demonstrated that this approach can compete with state-of-the-art numerical techniques, making NQS a compelling alternative, in particular for the simulation of large, two-dimensional quantum systems. In this study, we show that recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions can be employed to study systems relevant to current research in quantum many-body physics. Specifically, we employ a 2D tensorized gated RNN to explore the bosonic Hofstadter model with a variable local Hilbert space cut-off and long-range interactions. At first, we benchmark the RNN-NQS for the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard (HBH) Hamiltonian on a square lattice. We find that this method is, despite the complexity of the wave function, capable of efficiently identifying and representing most ground state properties. Afterwards, we apply the method to an even more challenging model for current methods, namely the Hofstadter model with long-range interactions. This model describes Rydberg-dressed atoms on a lattice subject to a synthetic magnetic field. We study systems of size up to 12×1212 \times 1212×12 sites and identify three different regimes by tuning the interaction range and the filling fraction ννν. In addition to phases known from the HBH model at short-ranged interaction, we observe bubble crystals and Wigner crystals for long-ranged interactions. Especially interesting is the evidence of a bubble crystal phase on a lattice, as this gives experiments a starting point for the search of clustered liquid phases, possibly hosting non-Abelian anyon excitations. In our work we show that NQS are an efficient and reliable simulation method for quantum systems, which are the subject of current research.
Artificial neural networks play a prominent role in the rapidly growing field of machine learning and are recently introduced to quantum many-body systems to tackle complex problems. Here, we find that even topological states with long-range quantum entanglement can be represented with classical artificial neural networks. This is demonstrated by using two concrete spin systems, the one-dimensional (1D) symmetry-protected topological cluster state and the 2D toric code state with an intrinsic topological order. For both cases we show rigorously that the topological ground states can be represented by short-range neural networks in an {\it exact} fashion. This neural network representation, in addition to being exact, is surprisingly {\it efficient} as the required number of hidden neurons is as small as the number of physical spins. Our exact construction of topological-order neuron-representation demonstrates explicitly the exceptional power of neural networks in describing exotic quantum states, and at the same time provides valuable topological data to supervise machine learning topological quantum orders in generic lattice models.
Due to their immense representative power, neural network quantum states (NQS) have gained significant interest in current research. In recent advances in the field of NQS, it has been demonstrated that this approach can compete with state-of-the-art numerical techniques, making NQS a compelling alternative, in particular for the simulation of large, two-dimensional (2D) quantum systems. In this study, we show that recurrent neural network (RNN) wave functions can be employed to study systems relevant to current research in quantum many-body physics. Specifically, we employ a 2D tensorized gated RNN to explore the bosonic Hofstadter model with a variable local Hilbert space cutoff and long-range interactions. At first, we benchmark the RNN-NQS for the Hofstadter-Bose-Hubbard (HBH) Hamiltonian on a square lattice. We find that this method, despite the complexity of the wave function, is capable of efficiently identifying and representing most ground-state properties. Afterwards, we apply the method to an even more challenging model for current methods, namely, the Hofstadter model with long-range interactions. This model describes Rydberg-dressed atoms on a lattice subject to a synthetic magnetic field. We study systems of size up to $12\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}12$ sites and identify three different regimes by tuning the interaction range and the filling fraction $\ensuremath{\nu}$. In addition to phases known from the HBH model at short-range interaction, we observe bubble crystals and Wigner crystals for long-range interactions. Especially interesting is the evidence of a bubble crystal phase on a lattice, as this gives experiments a starting point for the search of clustered liquid phases, possibly hosting non-Abelian anyon excitations. In our work, we show that NQS are an efficient and reliable simulation method for quantum systems, which are the subject of current research. In particular, we demonstrate the ability of this method to simulate challenging systems with long-range interactions.
Tensor network states, and in particular projected entangled pair states, play an important role in the description of strongly correlated quantum lattice systems. They do not only serve as variational states in numerical simulation methods, but also provide a framework for classifying phases of quantum matter and capture notions of topological order in a stringent and rigorous language. The rapid development in this field for spin models and bosonic systems has not yet been mirrored by an analogous development for fermionic models. In this work, we introduce a tensor network formalism capable of capturing notions of topological order for quantum systems with fermionic components. At the heart of the formalism are axioms of fermionic matrix-product operator injectivity, stable under concatenation. Building upon that, we formulate a Grassmann number tensor network ansatz for the ground state of fermionic twisted quantum double models. A specific focus is put on the paradigmatic example of the fermionic toric code. This work shows that the program of describing topologically ordered systems using tensor networks carries over to fermionic models.
We investigate the impact of an isotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg perturbation on the toric code, focusing on the resulting quantum phase transition and the nature of the phase that emerges beyond topological order. Using neural-network quantum states (NQS), we compute ground states over a wide range of Heisenberg couplings while fully respecting the exact symmetries of the model. In the weak-coupling regime, the numerical results are in excellent agreement with an effective low-energy description derived from a Schrieffer-Wolff (SW) transformation, providing analytic control over the perturbative breakdown of topological order. We show that the Heisenberg perturbation only renormalizes local operators at low orders, whereas mixing between topological sectors occurs only at a perturbative order proportional to the system size. At intermediate values of the Heisenberg interaction, the topological phase breaks down. We estimate the critical point through a combination of the fidelity susceptibility and the logarithmic susceptibility of non-contractible Wilson loops for various system sizes. Furthermore, we utilize the topological entanglement entropy to provide a comprehensive characterization of the phase transition. Beyond the transition, an antiferromagnetic ±X/±Z\pm X/\pm Z±X/±Z Néel phase emerges, characterized by a fourfold-degenerate symmetry-broken manifold, which is explicitly probed using staggered-magnetization-based diagnostics. Our results show how local two-spin interactions, which naturally arise in realistic implementations of the toric code, drive the breakdown of topological order. Moreover, we establish the SW approach as a systematic framework for analyzing such perturbations in combination with variational many-body methods.