Recently, Fendley et al. (2025) [arXiv:2511.04674] revealed a new way to demonstrate the integrability of XYZ Heisenberg model by constructing a one-parameter family of integrals of motion in the matrix product operator (MPO) form. In this short note, I report on the discovery of two-parameter families of MPOs that commute with with the Heisenberg spin chain Hamiltonian in the XXX, XXZ, and XYZ cases. I describe a symbolic algebra approach for finding such integrals of motion and speculate about possible applications.
Recently, Fendley et al. (2025) [arXiv:2511.04674] revealed a new way to demonstrate the integrability of XYZ Heisenberg model by constructing a one-parameter family of integrals of motion in the matrix product operator (MPO) form. In this short note, I report on the discovery of two-parameter families of MPOs that commute with with the Heisenberg spin chain Hamiltonian in the XXX, XXZ, and XYZ cases. I describe a symbolic algebra approach for finding such integrals of motion and speculate about possible applications.
We construct and study a two-parameter family of matrix product operators of bond dimension D=4. The operators M(x,y) act on (C2)⊗N, i.e., the space of states of a spin-1/2 chain of length N. For the particular values of the parameters: x=1/3 and y=1/3, the operator turns out to be proportional to the square root of the reduced density matrix of the valence-bond-solid state on a hexagonal ladder. We show that M(x,y) has several interesting properties when (x,y) lies on the unit circle centered at the origin: x2+y2=1. In this case, we find that M(x,y) commutes with the Hamiltonian and all the conserved charges of the isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. Moreover, M(x1,y1) and M(x2,y2) are mutually commuting if xi2+yi2=1 for both i=1 and 2. These remarkable properties of M(x,y) are proved as a consequence of the Yang-Baxter equation.
Matrix-product operators (MPOs) appear throughout the study of integrable lattice models, notably as the transfer matrices. They can also be used as transformations to construct dualities between such models, both invertible (including unitary) and non-invertible (including discrete gauging). We analyse how the local Yang--Baxter integrable structures are modified under such dualities. We see that the Rˇ-matrix, that appears in the baxterization approach to integrability, transforms in a simple manner. We further argue for a broad class of MPO dualities that the usual Yang--Baxter R-matrix should be extended. This extended R-matrix satisfies modified algebraic relations, including a modified Yang--Baxter algebra previously identified in the unitary case, that altogether give a local integrable structure underlying the commuting transfer matrices of the dual model. We illustrate these results with two case studies, analysing an invertible unitary MPO and a non-invertible MPO both applied to the canonical XXZ spin chain. The former is the cluster entangler, arising in the study of symmetry-protected topological phases, while the latter is the Kramers--Wannier duality. We show several results for MPOs with exact MPO inverses that are of independent interest.
We construct new families of spin chain Hamiltonians that are local, integrable, and translationally invariant. To do so, we make use of the Clifford group that arises in quantum information theory. We consider translation invariant Clifford group transformations that can be described by matrix product operators (MPOs). We classify translation invariant Clifford group transformations that consist of a shift operator and an MPO of bond dimension two—this includes transformations that preserve locality of all Hamiltonians and those that lead to non-local images of particular operators but, nevertheless, preserve locality of certain Hamiltonians. We characterize translation invariant Clifford group transformations that take single-site Pauli operators to local operators on at most five sites—examples of Quantum Cellular Automata—leading to a discrete family of Hamiltonians that are equivalent to the canonical XXZ model under such transformations. For spin chains solvable by the algebraic Bethe ansatz, we explain how conjugating by an MPO affects the underlying integrable structure. This allows us to relate our results to the usual classifications of integrable Hamiltonians. We also treat the case of spin chains solvable by free fermions.
Abstract Sutherland showed that the XYZ quantum spin-chain Hamiltonian commutes with the eight-vertex model transfer matrix, so that Baxter’s subsequent tour de force proves the integrability of both. The proof requires parametrising the Boltzmann weights using elliptic theta functions and showing they satisfy the Yang-Baxter equation. We here give a simpler derivation of the integrability of the XYZ chain by explicitly constructing an extensive sequence of conserved charges from a matrix-product operator. We show that they commute with the XYZ Hamiltonian with periodic boundary conditions or an arbitrary boundary magnetic field. A straightforward generalisation yields impurity interactions that preserve the integrability. Placing such an impurity at the edge gives an integrable generalisation of the Kondo problem with a gapped bulk. We make contact with the traditional approach by relating our matrix-product operator to products of the eight-vertex model transfer matrix.
In recent work, Hartmann et al (2009 Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 057202) demonstrated that the classical simulation of the dynamics of open 1D quantum systems with matrix product algorithms can often be dramatically improved by performing time evolution in the Heisenberg picture. For a closed system this was exemplified by an exact matrix product operator (MPO) solution of the time-evolved creation operator of a quadratic fermi chain with a matrix dimension of just two. In this work, we show that this exact solution can be significantly generalized to include the case of an open quadratic fermi chain subjected to master equation evolution with Lindblad operators that are linear in the fermionic operators. Remarkably even in this open system the time evolution of operators continues to be described by MPOs with the same fixed dimension as that required by the solution of a coherent quadratic fermi chain for all times. Through the use of matrix product algorithms the dynamical behaviour of operators in this non-equilibrium open quantum system can be computed with a cost that is linear in the system size. We present some simple numerical examples that highlight how useful this might be for the more detailed study of open system dynamics. Given that Heisenberg picture simulations have been demonstrated to offer significant accuracy improvements for other open systems that are not exactly solvable, our work also provides further insight into how and why this advantage arises.