Multipartite entanglement offers a powerful framework for understanding the complex collective phenomena in quantum many-body systems that are often beyond the description of conventional bipartite entanglement measures. Here, we propose a class of multipartite entanglement measures that incorporate the matrix product state (MPS) representation, enabling the characterization of the optimality of quantum circuits for state preparation. These measures are defined as the minimal distances from a target state to the manifolds of MPSs with specified virtual bond dimensions χ, and thus are dubbed as χ-specified matrix product entanglement (χ-MPE). We demonstrate superlinear, linear, and sublinear scaling behaviors of χ-MPE with respect to the negative logarithmic fidelity F in state preparation, which correspond to excessive, optimal, and insufficient circuit depth D for preparing χ-virtual-dimensional MPSs, respectively. Specifically, a linearly growing χ-MPE with F suggests H_{χ}≃H_{D}, where H_{χ} denotes the manifold of the χ-virtual-dimensional MPSs and H_{D} denotes that of the states accessible by the D-layer circuits. We provide an exact proof that H_{χ=2}≡H_{D=1}. Our results establish tensor networks as a powerful and general tool for developing parametrized measures of multipartite entanglement. The matrix product form adopted in χ-MPE can be readily extended to other tensor network Ansätze, whose scaling behaviors are expected to assess the optimality of quantum circuit in preparing the corresponding tensor network states.
Multipartite entanglement offers a powerful framework for understanding the complex collective phenomena in quantum many-body systems that are often beyond the description of conventional bipartite entanglement measures. Here, we propose a class of multipartite entanglement measures that incorporate the matrix product state (MPS) representation, enabling the characterization of the optimality of quantum circuits for state preparation. These measures are defined as the minimal distances from a target state to the manifolds of MPSs with specified virtual bond dimensions χ, and thus are dubbed as χ-specified matrix product entanglement (χ-MPE). We demonstrate superlinear, linear, and sublinear scaling behaviors of χ-MPE with respect to the negative logarithmic fidelity F in state preparation, which correspond to excessive, optimal, and insufficient circuit depth D for preparing χ-virtual-dimensional MPSs, respectively. Specifically, a linearly growing χ-MPE with F suggests H_{χ}≃H_{D}, where H_{χ} denotes the manifold of the χ-virtual-dimensional MPSs and H_{D} denotes that of the states accessible by the D-layer circuits. We provide an exact proof that H_{χ=2}≡H_{D=1}. Our results establish tensor networks as a powerful and general tool for developing parametrized measures of multipartite entanglement. The matrix product form adopted in χ-MPE can be readily extended to other tensor network Ansätze, whose scaling behaviors are expected to assess the optimality of quantum circuit in preparing the corresponding tensor network states.
Classical simulation of quantum circuits is an essential tool in quantum information science, but its applicability is constrained by the exponential growth of the Hilbert space and the entanglement structure of quantum states. In this work, we introduce Matrix Product Evolution (MPE), a tensor-train representation of quantum circuits constructed along the circuit depth rather than along the qubit index. Within this formulation, the simulation of a quantum circuit is modeled as the contraction of multiple MPE tensors. We develop an efficient contraction strategy based on a zip-up procedure to carry out this contraction in practice. We investigate the numerical behavior of this MPE-based contraction framework through simulations of random quantum circuits and the time evolution of a quantum many-body state. Our results characterize the growth of temporal bond dimensions, clarify how post-selection modifies the contraction cost and approximation accuracy, and identify regimes in which depth-oriented tensor-network contractions provide a useful complement to standard MPS-based simulation approaches.
Preparing matrix product states (MPS) on a quantum device is a key subroutine in many quantum algorithms. The most competitive methods, based on the renormalisation group, prepare translationally invariant MPS of size L and bond dimension χ, up to an error ε, in circuit depth O~(χ4log(L/ε)) or O~(χ6loglog(L/ε)). We improve multiple aspects of these methods. First, using block-encoded correction maps, whose post-selection succeeds with constant probability, we render the preparation exact without sacrificing the scaling in L. Second, through a generalisation of oblivious amplitude amplification to isometries, we reduce the bond-dimension dependence, improving the depth to O~(χ2logL+χ4) or O~(χ2loglogL+χ4), and even to O~(χ3logL) for incoherent preparations. Finally, we extend the framework to non-translationally invariant MPS and prove logarithmic-depth exact preparation for independent and identically distributed random tensor sequences. Confirmed by numerical studies, these results constitute, to the best of our knowledge, the most efficient exact MPS preparation protocols in the relevant parameter regimes.
We study the classical compilation of quantum circuits for the preparation of matrix product states (MPS), which are quantum states of low entanglement with an efficient classical description. Our algorithm represents a near-term alternative to previous sequential approaches by reverse application of a disentangler, which can be found by minimizing bipartite entanglement measures after the application of a layer of parametrized disentangling gates. Since a successful disentangler is expected to decrease the bond dimension on average, such a layer-by-layer optimization remains classically efficient even for deep circuits. Additionally, as the Schmidt coefficients of all bonds are locally accessible through the canonical Γ − Λ form of an MPS, the optimization algorithm can be heavily parallelized. We discuss guarantees and limitations to trainability and show numerical results for ground states of one-dimensional, local Hamiltonians as well as artificially spread out entanglement among multiple qubits using error-correcting codes.
Preparing arbitrary quantum states requires exponential resources. Matrix Product States (MPS) admit more efficient constructions, particularly when accuracy is traded for circuit complexity. Existing approaches to MPS preparation mostly rely on heuristic circuits that are deterministic but quickly saturate in accuracy, or on variational optimization methods that reach high fidelities but scale poorly. This work introduces an end-to-end MPS preparation framework that combines the strengths of both strategies within a single pipeline. Heuristic staircase-like and brick wall disentangler circuits provide warm-start initializations for variational optimization, enabling high-fidelity state preparation for large systems. Target MPSs are either specified as physical quantum states or constructed from classical datasets via amplitude encoding, using step-by-step singular value decompositions or tensor cross interpolation. The framework incorporates entanglement-based qubit reordering, reformulated as a quadratic assignment problem, and low-level optimizations that reduce depths by up to 50% and CNOT counts by 33%. We evaluate the full pipeline on datasets of varying complexity across systems of 19-50 qubits and identify trade-offs between fidelity, gate count, and circuit depth. Optimized brick wall circuits typically achieve the lowest depths, while the optimized staircase-like circuits minimize gate counts. Overall, our results provide principled and scalable protocols for preparing MPSs as quantum circuits, supporting utility-scale applications on near-term quantum devices.
Abstract Preparing arbitrary quantum states requires exponential resources. Matrix product states (MPS) admit more efficient constructions, particularly when accuracy is traded for circuit complexity. Existing approaches to MPS preparation mostly rely on heuristic circuits that are deterministic but quickly saturate in accuracy, or on variational optimization methods that reach high fidelities but scale poorly. This work introduces an end-to-end MPS preparation framework that combines the strengths of both strategies within a single pipeline. Heuristic staircase-like and brick wall disentangler circuits provide warm-start initializations for variational optimization, enabling high-fidelity state preparation for large systems. Target MPSs are either specified as physical quantum states or constructed from classical datasets via amplitude encoding, using step-by-step singular value decompositions or tensor cross interpolation. The framework incorporates entanglement-based qubit reordering, reformulated as a quadratic assignment problem, and low-level optimizations that reduce depths by up to 50 % and CNOT counts by 33 % . We evaluate the full pipeline on datasets of varying complexity across systems of 19–50 qubits and identify trade-offs between fidelity, gate count, and circuit depth. Optimized brick wall circuits typically achieve the lowest depths, while the optimized staircase-like circuits minimize gate counts. Overall, our results provide principled and scalable protocols for preparing MPSs as quantum circuits, supporting utility-scale applications on near-term quantum devices.
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.