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arXiv:2604.00037

Fast elementwise operations on tensor trains with alternating cross interpolation

Marc K. Ritter

math.NAphysics.comp-phquant-phSubmitted Mar 24, 2026• Announced Mar 26, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Apr 23, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Mar 24, 2026v2 · Apr 23, 2026
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Abstract

Tensor trains (TTs), also known as matrix product states (MPS), are compressed representations of high-dimensional data that can be efficiently manipulated to perform calculations on the data. In many applications, such as TT-based solvers for nonlinear partial differential equations, the most expensive step is an elementwise multiplication or similar elementwise operation on multiple TTs. Known error-controlled algorithms for such operations scale as $O(χ^4)$, where $χ$ is the TT rank. If the rank of the output is smaller than $χ^2$, it is possible to formulate algorithms with better scaling. In this work, we present the alternating cross interpolation (ACI) algorithm that performs such operations in $O(χ^3)$, while maintaining error control. We demonstrate these properties on benchmark problems, achieving a significant speedup for TT ranks that are commonly encountered in practical applications.

Comments
5 pages, 3 figures. Associated code available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19208286

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Tensor trains (TTs), also known as matrix product states (MPS), are compressed representations of high-dimensional data that can be efficiently manipulated to perform calculations on the data. In many applications, such as TT-based solvers for nonlinear partial differential equations, the most expensive step is an elementwise multiplication or similar elementwise operation on multiple TTs. Known error-controlled algorithms for such operations scale as O(χ4)O(χ^4)O(χ4), where χχχ is the TT rank. If the rank of the output is smaller than χ2χ^2χ2, it is possible to formulate algorithms with better scaling. In this work, we present the alternating cross interpolation (ACI) algorithm that performs such operations in O(χ3)O(χ^3)O(χ3), while maintaining error control. We demonstrate these properties on benchmark problems, achieving a significant speedup for TT ranks that are commonly encountered in practical applications.
The Hadamard product of two tensors in the tensor-train (TT) format is a fundamental operation across various applications, such as TT-based function multiplication for nonlinear differential equations or convolutions. However, conventional methods for computing this product typically scale as at least O(χ4)\mathcal{O}(χ^4)O(χ4) with respect to the TT bond dimension (TT-rank) χχχ, creating a severe computational bottleneck in practice. By combining randomized tensor-train sketching with slice selection via interpolative decomposition, we introduce Recursive Sketched Interpolation (RSI), a ``scale product'' algorithm that computes the Hadamard product of TTs at a computational cost of O(χ3)\mathcal{O}(χ^3)O(χ3). Benchmarks across various TT scenarios demonstrate that RSI offers superior scalability compared to traditional methods while maintaining comparable accuracy. We generalize RSI to compute more complex operations, including Hadamard products of multiple TTs and other element-wise nonlinear mappings, without increasing the complexity beyond O(χ3)\mathcal{O}(χ^3)O(χ3).
The tensor cross interpolation (TCI) algorithm is a rank-revealing algorithm for decomposing low-rank, high-dimensional tensors into tensor trains/matrix product states (MPS). TCI learns a compact MPS representation of the entire object from a tiny training data set. Once obtained, the large existing MPS toolbox provides exponentially fast algorithms for performing a large set of operations. We discuss several improvements and variants of TCI. In particular, we show that replacing the cross interpolation by the partially rank-revealing LU decomposition yields a more stable and more flexible algorithm than the original algorithm. We also present two open source libraries, xfac in Python/C++ and TensorCrossInterpolation.jl in Julia, that implement these improved algorithms, and illustrate them on several applications. These include sign-problem-free integration in large dimension, the “superhigh-resolution” quantics representation of functions, the solution of partial differential equations, the superfast Fourier transform, the computation of partition functions, and the construction of matrix product operators.
Tensor networks are a compressed format for multi-dimensional data. One dimensional tensor networks—often referred to as tensor trains (TT) or matrix product states (MPS)—are increasingly being used as a numerical Ansatz for continuum functions by ``quantizing’’ the inputs into discrete binary digits. Here we demonstrate the power of more general tree tensor networks (TTNs) for this purpose. We provide direct constructions of a number of elementary functions as generic tree tensor networks and interpolative constructions for more complicated functions via a generalization of the tensor cross interpolation algorithm. For a range of multi-dimensional functions we show how more structured tree tensor networks offer a significantly more efficient Ansatz than the commonly used tensor train. Finally, we demonstrate how the methods introduced in this work can be used to realize a TTN-based solver for multi-dimensional, non-linear Fredholm equations.
The tensor train (TT) model is widely used to approximate high-dimensional tensors, enabling efficient handling of data that may exceed available memory. TT helps address the curse of dimensionality in applications such as system identification and dynamic programming. In some applications, TT is known as a ``matrix product state" (MPS). The last product is also known under the acronym MPO--MPS. The proposed algorithms achieve an improved trade-off between computational efficiency and accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods.
Using the matrix product state (MPS) representation of tensor train decompositions, in this paper we propose a tensor completion algorithm which alternates over the matrices (tensors) in the MPS representation. This development is motivated in part by the success of matrix completion algorithms which alternate over the (low-rank) factors. We comment on the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm and numerically compare it with existing methods employing low rank tensor train approximation for data completion as well as several other recently proposed methods. We show that our method is superior to existing ones for a variety of real settings.
Recent achievements in the field of tensor product approximation provide promising new formats for the representation of tensors in form of tree tensor networks. In contrast to the canonical r-term representation (CANDECOMP, PARAFAC), these new formats provide stable representations, while the amount of required data is only slightly larger. The tensor train (TT) format [SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 33 (2011), pp. 2295–2317], a simple special case of the hierarchical Tucker format [J. Fourier Anal. Appl., 5 (2009), p. 706], is a useful prototype for practical low-rank tensor representation. In this article, we show how optimization tasks can be treated in the TT format by a generalization of the well-known alternating least squares (ALS) algorithm and by a modified approach (MALS) that enables dynamical rank adaptation. A formulation of the component equations in terms of so-called retraction operators helps to show that many structural properties of the original problems transfer to the micro-iterations, giving what is to our knowledge the first stable generic algorithm for the treatment of optimization tasks in the tensor format. For the examples of linear equations and eigenvalue equations, we derive concrete working equations for the micro-iteration steps; numerical examples confirm the theoretical results concerning the stability of the TT decomposition and of ALS and MALS but also show that in some cases, high TT ranks are required during the iterative approximation of low-rank tensors, showing some potential of improvement.