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arXiv:2603.28349

The local characterization of global tensor network eigenstates

José Garre Rubio, András Molnár, Norbert Schuch, Frank Verstraete

quant-phcond-mat.str-elSubmitted Mar 30, 2026• Announced Mar 31, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Sep 8, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Mar 30, 2026v2 · Sep 8, 2026
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Abstract

We study the conditions under which Matrix Product States (MPS) or Matrix Product Operators are exact eigenvectors of an extensive local operator, such as a Hamiltonian. By suitably choosing the local operator, this covers a wide range of settings: Exact eigenstates of Hamiltonians, including scar states, exact MPS trajectories for driven quantum systems, steady states of local Lindbladians, generalized symmetries of either Hamiltonians or density matrices, and many more. Our key result is that a local, fixed-size equation---namely, how a single term in the operator acts on a block of tensors---provides a necessary and sufficient condition for exact solutions. This local characterization allows us to obtain the full space of MPS solutions to all of the aforementioned problems; in particular, we exemplify the power of our results by recovering the quantum group symmetries of the XXZ model. We also discuss applications to numerical algorithms with MPS and the generalization of our results to 2D, i.e., projected entangled pair states (PEPS).

Comments
The new version expands the result significantly for 2D injective PEPS. New figure added. All proofs are contained in the appendices (23 pages)

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We study the conditions under which Matrix Product States (MPS) or Matrix Product Operators are exact eigenvectors of an extensive local operator, such as a Hamiltonian. By suitably choosing the local operator, this covers a wide range of settings: Exact eigenstates of Hamiltonians, including scar states, exact MPS trajectories for driven quantum systems, steady states of local Lindbladians, generalized symmetries of either Hamiltonians or density matrices, and many more. Our key result is that a local, fixed-size equation---namely, how a single term in the operator acts on a block of tensors---provides a necessary and sufficient condition for exact solutions. This local characterization allows us to obtain the full space of MPS solutions to all of the aforementioned problems; in particular, we exemplify the power of our results by recovering the quantum group symmetries of the XXZ model. We also discuss applications to numerical algorithms with MPS and the generalization of our results to 2D, i.e., projected entangled pair states (PEPS).
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.
We classify the different ways in which matrix product states (MPSs) can stay invariant under the action of matrix product operator (MPO) symmetries. This is achieved through a local characterization of how the MPSs, that generate a ground space, remain invariant under a global MPO symmetry. This characterization yields a set of quantities satisfying the coupled pentagon equations, associated with a module category over the fusion category that describes the MPO symmetry. Equivalence classes of these quantities provide complete invariants for an MPO symmetry protected phase: they are robust under continuous deformations of the MPS tensor, and two phases with the same equivalence class can be connected by a symmetric gapped path. Our techniques match and extend the known renormalization fixed point classifications and facilitate the numerical study of these systems. For MPO symmetries described by a group, we recover the symmetry protected topological order classification for unique and degenerate ground states. Moreover, we study the interplay between time reversal symmetry and an MPO symmetry and we also provide examples of our classification, together with explicit constructions based on groups. Finally, we elaborate on the connection between our setup and gapped boundaries of two-dimensional topological systems, where MPO symmetries also play a key role.
Tensor network methods provide powerful analytical and numerical tools for characterizing quantum phases of matter. While the mathematical structure of matrix product states (MPS) is well understood through the MPS fundamental theorem, an analogous understanding for mixed-state tensor networks remains largely absent: if two purification tensors generate the same density matrix, how are they related? In this work, we initiate the study of a fundamental theorem for matrix product locally purifiable density operators (LPDOs) and focus on sequentially generated LPDOs (sLPDOs), a broad subclass admitting an interpretation in terms of successive applications of quantum channels on an initial state. We prove that, under suitable invertibility or cyclic conditions, two sLPDO representations generate the same density matrix for arbitrary system sizes if and only if they are related by a matrix product isometry acting on the purification bonds. Beyond the sLPDO setting, we provide a counterexample that suggests an obstruction to a general fundamental theorem for LPDOs with periodic boundary conditions. Finally, we discuss implications for mixed-state symmetry-protected topological phases, including the possibility of nontrivial phases protected only by weak symmetry conditions.
We propose a framework to design concurrently a frustration-free quantum many-body Hamiltonian and its numerically exact ground states on a sufficiently large finite-size cluster in one and two dimensions using an elementary matrix product state (MPS) representation. Our approach strategically chooses a local cluster Hamiltonian, which is arranged to overlap with neighboring clusters on a designed lattice. The frustration-free Hamiltonian is given as the sum of the cluster Hamiltonians by ensuring that there exists a state that has its local submanifolds as the lowest-energy eigenstate of every cluster. The key to find such a solution is a systematic protocol, which projects out excited states on every cluster using MPS and effectively entangles the cluster states. This algorithm not only offers an exact solution to general frustration-free Hamiltonian, but even provide the excited eigenstates by setting a proper target. It has several advantages, including the ability to achieve the calculation of states at nearly equal cost in one and two dimensions including those belonging to gapless or long-range entangled classes, flexibility in designing Hamiltonians unbiasedly across various forms of models, and numerically feasible validation of exactness through energy calculations. It enables the exploration of exact phase boundaries and the analysis of even a spatially nonuniform random system, providing platforms for quantum simulations and benchmarks.
Given a tensor network state, how can we determine conserved operators (including Hamiltonians) for which the state is an eigenstate? We answer this question by presenting a method to extract geometrically kkk-local conserved operators that have the given infinite projected entangled pair state (iPEPS) in 2D as an (approximate) eigenstate. The key ingredient is the evaluation of the static structure factors of multi-site operators through differentiating the generating function. These generating functions define a manifold of the given tensor network state deformed by some parameters, endowed with a quantum geometry, where conserved operators correspond to vanishing fidelity susceptibility. Despite the approximation errors, we show that our method is still able to extract from exact or variational iPEPS to good precision both frustration-free and non-frustration-free parent Hamiltonians that are beyond the standard construction and obtain better locality. In particular, we find a 4-site-plaquette local Hamiltonian that approximately has the short-range RVB state as the ground state. Moreover, we find a Hamiltonian for which the deformed toric code state at arbitrary string tension is an excited eigenstate with the same energy, thereby potentially realizing quantum many-body scars.
Matrix product density operator (MPDO) provides an efficient tensor network representation of mixed states on one-dimensional quantum many-body systems. We study a real-space renormalization group transformation of MPDOs represented by a circuit of local quantum channels. We require that the renormalization group flow is exact, in the sense that it exactly preserves the correlation between the coarse-grained sites and is therefore invertible by another circuit of local quantum channels. Unlike matrix product states (MPS), which always have a well-defined isometric renormalization transformation, we show that general MPDOs do not necessarily admit a converging exact renormalization group flow. We then introduce a subclass of MPDOs with a well-defined renormalization group flow, and show the structure of the MPDOs in the subclass as a representation of a pre-bialgebra structure. As a result, such MPDOs obey generalized symmetry represented by matrix product operator algebras associated with the pre-bialgebra. We also discuss implications with the classification of mixed-state quantum phases.