Abstract In this work, we prove that any element in the tensor product of separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces can be expressed as a matrix product state (MPS) of possibly infinite bond dimension. The proof is based on the singular value decomposition of compact operators and the connection between tensor products and Hilbert–Schmidt operators via the Schmidt decomposition in infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert spaces. The construction of infinite-dimensional MPS (idMPS) is analogous to the well-known finite-dimensional construction in terms of singular value decompositions of matrices. The infinite matrices in idMPS give rise to operators acting on (possibly infinite-dimensional) auxiliary Hilbert spaces. As an example we explicitly construct an MPS representation for certain eigenstates of a chain of three coupled harmonic oscillators.
Abstract In this work, we prove that any element in the tensor product of separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces can be expressed as a matrix product state (MPS) of possibly infinite bond dimension. The proof is based on the singular value decomposition of compact operators and the connection between tensor products and Hilbert–Schmidt operators via the Schmidt decomposition in infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert spaces. The construction of infinite-dimensional MPS (idMPS) is analogous to the well-known finite-dimensional construction in terms of singular value decompositions of matrices. The infinite matrices in idMPS give rise to operators acting on (possibly infinite-dimensional) auxiliary Hilbert spaces. As an example we explicitly construct an MPS representation for certain eigenstates of a chain of three coupled harmonic oscillators.
Relations between states and maps, which are known for quantum systems in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, are formulated rigorously in geometrical terms with no use of coordinate (matrix) interpretation. In a tensor product realization they are represented simply by a permutation of factors. This leads to natural generalizations for infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces and a simple proof of a generalized Choi Theorem. The natural framework is based on spaces of Hilbert-Schmidt operators [Formula: see text] and the corresponding tensor products [Formula: see text] of Hilbert spaces. It is proved that the corresponding isomorphisms cannot be naturally extended to compact (or bounded) operators, nor reduced to the trace-class operators. On the other hand, it is proven that there is a natural continuous map [Formula: see text] from trace-class operators on [Formula: see text] (with the nuclear norm) into compact operators mapping the space of all bounded operators on [Formula: see text] into trace class operators on [Formula: see text] (with the operator-norm). Also in the infinite-dimensional context, the Schmidt measure of entanglement and multipartite generalizations of state-maps relations are considered in the paper.
In this paper we give a general integral representation for separable states in the tensor product of infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces and provide the first example of separable states that are not countably decomposable. We also prove the structure theorem for the quantum communication channels that are entanglement-breaking, generalizing the finite-dimensional result of M. Horodecki, Ruskai and Shor. In the finite dimensional case such channels can be characterized as having the Kraus representation with operators of rank 1. The above example implies existence of infinite-dimensional entanglement-breaking channels having no such representation.
The study of frustration-free Hamiltonians and their relation to finite bond-dimension matrix product states (MPS) has a long tradition. However, fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states do not quite fit into this theme since the known MPS representations of their ground states have infinite bond dimensions, which considerably obscures the relations between such MPS representations and the existence of frustration-free parent Hamiltonians. This is related to the fact that the latter necessarily are of infinite range in the orbital basis. Here, we present a theorem tailored to establishing the existence of frustration-free parent Hamiltonians in such a context. We explicitly demonstrate the utility of this theorem in the context of non-Abelian Moore-Read FQH states but argue the applicability of this theorem to transcend considerably beyond the realm of conformal-field-theory-derived MPSs or quasi-one-dimensional Hilbert spaces.
These notes provide an introduction to tensor-network methods in quantum many-body physics, with an emphasis on matrix-product states (MPS). They develop the basic tensor-network language, including graphical notation, virtual indices, bond dimensions, gauge freedom, canonical forms, QR and singular-value decompositions, and the role of entanglement in controlling the efficiency of the representation. The main MPS algorithms are then introduced, including contractions, correlation functions, matrix-product operators, DMRG, and time-evolution methods. The notes also briefly discuss projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) as a higher-dimensional generalization of MPS, together with the basic ideas behind approximate PEPS contraction. Finally, tensor-network representations of mixed states, quantum channels, and Lindblad dynamics are presented, with applications to thermal states and open quantum systems. The presentation is accompanied by short Julia code examples based on ITensor, ITensorMPS, and TensorMixedStates. These notes were written for the 9th Les Houches Summer School on Computational Physics: Open Quantum Systems, held in June 2026.
For the past twenty years, Matrix Product States (MPS) have been widely used in solid state physics to approximate the ground state of one-dimensional spin chains. In this paper, we study homogeneous MPS (hMPS), or MPS constructed via site-independent tensors and a boundary condition. Exploiting a connection with the theory of matrix algebras, we derive two structural properties shared by all hMPS, namely: a) there exist local operators which annihilate all hMPS of a given bond dimension; and b) there exist local operators which, when applied over any hMPS of a given bond dimension, decouple (cut) the particles where they act from the spin chain while at the same time join (glue) the two loose ends back again into a hMPS. Armed with these tools, we show how to systematically derive `bond dimension witnesses', or 2-local operators whose expectation value allows us to lower bound the bond dimension of the underlying hMPS. We extend some of these results to the ansatz of Projected Entangled Pairs States (PEPS). As a bonus, we use our insight on the structure of hMPS to: a) derive some theoretical limitations on the use of hMPS and hPEPS for ground state energy computations; b) show how to decrease the complexity and boost the speed of convergence of the semidefinite programming hierarchies described in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 020501 (2015)] for the characterization of finite-dimensional quantum correlations.
Matrix Product State (MPS) wavefunctions have many applications in quantum information and condensed matter physics. One application is to represent states in the thermodynamic limit directly, using a small set of position independent matrices. For this infinite MPS ansatz to be useful it is necessary to be able to calculate expectation values, and we show here that a large class of observables, including operators transforming under lattice translations as eigenstates of arbitrary momentum k, can be represented in the Schur form of a lower or upper triangular matrix and we present an algorithm for evaluating such expectation values in the asymptotic limit. The sum or the product of two such Schur operators is also a Schur operator, and is easily constructed to give a simple method of constructing arbitrary polynomial combinations of operators. Some simple examples are the variance ⟨(H−E)2⟩ of an infinite MPS, which gives a simple method of evaluating the accuracy of a numerical approximation to a eigenstate, or a vertex operator ⟨ck1†ck2†ck4ck3⟩. This approach is a step towards improved algorithms for the calculation of dynamical properties and excited states.