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arXiv:2507.05303 · Physics Letters B

The neural networks with tensor weights and emergent fermionic Wick rules in the large-width limit

Guojun Huang, Kai Zhou

Published Jan 5, 2026• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this paper, we study complex-valued neural network (CVNNs) with tensor-valued hidden-to-output weights within the framework of neural-network quantum field theory (NN-QFT). For standard CVNNs with scalar weights, we derive the generating functional and identify the exact Gaussian process that arises in the infinite-width limit, together with its associated effective quantum state. When the last-layer weights are promoted to Clifford-algebra-valued tensors, the network output becomes complex matrix-valued, and a fermion-like sign structure in the large-width correlation functions of the network output is induced. We show that, in the infinite-width limit, correlators with equal numbers of f † and f obey fermionic Wick rules and can be written as determinants built from a scalar Euclidean kernel S ( x , y ) = 〈 f † ( x ) f ( y ) . This provides a sign-structured extension of NN-QFT at the level of Euclidean correlators and Feynman rules, even though a microscopic Grassmann path integral representation for the network parameters has not yet been constructed. Our analysis thus pushes the NN-QFT correspondence beyond purely bosonic Gaussian fields and suggests a possible route to encoding fermion-like symmetries in neural architectures for QFT correspondence.

DOI
10.1016/j.physletb.2025.140146

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We propose a neural-network construction of Euclidean scalar quantum field theories from transformer attention heads, defining nnn-point correlators by averaging over random network parameters in the NN-QFT framework. For a single attention head, shared random softmax weights couple different width coordinates and induce non-Gaussian field statistics that persist in the infinite-width limit dk→∞d_k\to\inftydk​→∞. We compute the two-point function in an attention-weight representation and show how Euclidean-invariant kernels can be engineered via random-feature token embeddings. We then analyze the connected four-point function and identify an "independence-breaking" contribution, expressible as a covariance over query-key weights, which remains finite at infinite width. Finally, we show that summing many independent heads with standard 1/Nh1/N_h1/Nh​ normalization suppresses connected non-Gaussian correlators as 1/Nh1/N_h1/Nh​, yielding a Gaussian NN-QFT in the large-head limit.
A statistical ensemble of neural networks can be described in terms of a quantum field theory (NN-QFT correspondence). The infinite-width limit is mapped to a free field theory, while finite N corrections are mapped to interactions. After reviewing the correspondence, we will describe how to implement renormalization in this context and discuss preliminary numerical results for translation-invariant kernels. A major outcome is that changing the standard deviation of the neural network weight distribution corresponds to a renormalization flow in the space of networks.
Neural networks can be studied not only as parameterized computational models but also as probability distributions over functions. In this paper we develop a Wilsonian interpretation of criticality in the neural network-quantum field theory correspondence, treating the infinite width Gaussian-process limit as a free field fixed point and finite width corrections as perturbations that create non-Gaussian interactions. In this way, we do not see the departure from infinite width as a small approximation error but as the process by which interaction, complexity, expressivity and phase-like behaviour enter neural network function space. Width, depth, activation nonlinearity, initialization variance, and training dynamics are considered as control parameters that change the effective action of the network ensemble. The critical regime is when the higher-order connected correlation functions become non-negligible, and when the finite width operators become relevant or marginal scaling factors, and when the function distribution becomes sensitive to scale-dependent structure. There we can view overparameterization as suppressing a relationship of interacting terms and we find that the critical structure of finite neural networks is given by finite-width effects. This framework is a theoretical basis for studying trainability, generalization, and architectural universality of neural network functions through Wilsonian fixed points, perturbations, and critical surfaces.
We describe a class of neuralized fermionic tensor network states (NN-fTNS) that introduce non-linearity into fermionic tensor networks through configuration-dependent neural network transformations of the local tensors. The construction uses the fTNS algebra to implement a natural fermionic sign structure and is compatible with standard tensor network algorithms, but gains enhanced expressivity through the neural network parametrization. Using the 1D and 2D Fermi-Hubbard models as benchmarks, we demonstrate that NN-fTNS achieve order of magnitude improvements in the ground-state energy compared to pure fTNS with the same bond dimension, and can be systematically improved through both the tensor network bond dimension and the neural network parametrization. Compared to existing fermionic neural quantum states (NQS) based on Slater determinants and Pfaffians, NN-fTNS offer a physically motivated alternative fermionic structure. Furthermore, compared to such states, NN-fTNS naturally exhibit improved computational scaling and we demonstrate a construction that achieves linear scaling with the lattice size.
We explicitly construct the quantum field theory corresponding to a general class of deep neural networks encompassing both recurrent and feedforward architectures. We first consider the mean-field theory (MFT) obtained as the leading saddlepoint in the action, and derive the condition for criticality via the largest Lyapunov exponent. We then compute the loop corrections to the correlation function in a perturbative expansion in the ratio of depth T to width N, and find a precise analogy with the well-studied O(N) vector model, in which the variance of the weight initializations plays the role of the 't Hooft coupling. In particular, we compute both the O(1) corrections quantifying fluctuations from typicality in the ensemble of networks, and the subleading O(T/N) corrections due to finite-width effects. These provide corrections to the correlation length that controls the depth to which information can propagate through the network, and thereby sets the scale at which such networks are trainable by gradient descent. Our analysis provides a first-principles approach to the rapidly emerging NN-QFT correspondence, and opens several interesting avenues to the study of criticality in deep neural networks.
Under mild assumptions, any quantum mechanical (QM) model or quantum field theory (QFT) admits a representation in terms of an ensemble of neural networks with countably many random parameters. We investigate the features of NN-QM and NN-FT models with finitely many parameters, such as a feedforward network of width N<∞N < \inftyN<∞. We find that, generically, such models must violate one of the properties of conventional Euclidean QFTs, such as reflection positivity or cluster decomposition. We present several complementary ways of understanding which features can and cannot be preserved at finite NNN, both in QM and in QFT.