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arXiv:2607.13790

Bridging Frustration and Non-Hermiticity via COMPASS: An Adaptive Biorthogonal Neural Quantum State Framework

Lavoisier Wah, Flore K. Kunst, Mohamed Hibat-Allah

quant-phSubmitted Jul 15, 2026• Announced Jul 16, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

In this work, we introduce a complementary optimization method for progressive and adaptive state search (COMPASS) based on biorthogonal adaptive recurrent neural quantum states. Our approach combines an adaptive autoregressive architecture with a biorthogonal variational Monte Carlo scheme as well as a complementary optimization scheme that alternates between energy and variance minimization. This enables the stable convergence to ground-state eigenpairs, while avoiding Markov chain sampling through exact autoregressive generation. We demonstrate that for parity-time(PT)-symmetric Hamiltonians, unconstrained complex ansatze can spontaneously break PT symmetry during optimization, even in the unbroken phase, leading to spurious imaginary energies. Real-valued ansatze, on the other hand, naturally constrain the optimization to the correct physical manifold. Conversely, for generic non-Hermitian (NH) Hamiltonians without symmetry protection and complex spectra, complex ansatze are essential for capturing complex ground-state properties. Our results establish that physically-informed ansatz selection is crucial for reliable NH simulations. By combining adaptive architectures, biorthogonal optimization, and symmetry-aware modeling, this framework enables a direct study of 1D and 2D NH many-body systems without Hermitian embeddings or adiabatic continuation. Applying this framework to systems with frustrated magnetism, we show that gap frustration provides a quantitative shield against NH spectral instability, with the frustration gap setting a critical threshold for PT-symmetry breaking. Also, complexifying the frustration coupling itself generates a new topologically nontrivial network of diabolic level crossings, controlled by the phase of the complex coupling, that has no Hermitian analog. We term this novel spectral topology in NH frustrated systems the diabolic ring.

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In this work, we introduce a complementary optimization method for progressive and adaptive state search (COMPASS) based on biorthogonal adaptive recurrent neural quantum states. Our approach combines an adaptive autoregressive architecture with a biorthogonal variational Monte Carlo scheme as well as a complementary optimization scheme that alternates between energy and variance minimization. This enables the stable convergence to ground-state eigenpairs, while avoiding Markov chain sampling through exact autoregressive generation. We demonstrate that for parity-time(PT)-symmetric Hamiltonians, unconstrained complex ansatze can spontaneously break PT symmetry during optimization, even in the unbroken phase, leading to spurious imaginary energies. Real-valued ansatze, on the other hand, naturally constrain the optimization to the correct physical manifold. Conversely, for generic non-Hermitian (NH) Hamiltonians without symmetry protection and complex spectra, complex ansatze are essential for capturing complex ground-state properties. Our results establish that physically-informed ansatz selection is crucial for reliable NH simulations. By combining adaptive architectures, biorthogonal optimization, and symmetry-aware modeling, this framework enables a direct study of 1D and 2D NH many-body systems without Hermitian embeddings or adiabatic continuation. Applying this framework to systems with frustrated magnetism, we show that gap frustration provides a quantitative shield against NH spectral instability, with the frustration gap setting a critical threshold for PT-symmetry breaking. Also, complexifying the frustration coupling itself generates a new topologically nontrivial network of diabolic level crossings, controlled by the phase of the complex coupling, that has no Hermitian analog. We term this novel spectral topology in NH frustrated systems the diabolic ring.
Non-Hermitian (NH) quantum many-body systems exhibit a rich array of physical phenomena, including NH skin effects and exceptional points, that remain largely inaccessible to existing numerical techniques. In this Letter, we investigate the application of variational Monte Carlo and neural network wave function representations to examine their ground-state properties. Due to the breakdown of the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle in NH settings, we develop a self-consistent symmetric optimization framework based on variance minimization with a dynamically updated energy estimate. Our approach respects the biorthogonal structure of left and right eigenstates, and is further strengthened by exploiting system symmetries and pseudo-Hermiticity. Leveraging this tool, we probe and report accurate NH physical observables for a two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model with a complex longitudinal field, spanning both parity-time symmetric and broken phases. Lastly, we show, through extensive numerical evidence, that our method offers a scalable and flexible computational tool to investigate NH quantum many-body systems, beyond the reach of conventional numerical techniques such as the density-matrix renormalization group algorithm.
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Accurately determining the ground-state properties of quantum many-body systems remains a central challenge. In this work, we introduce an autoregressive projective quantum Monte Carlo (PQMC) framework that leverages recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to guide the stochastic dynamics. By incorporating autoregressive sampling into PQMC, we demonstrate substantial improvements in accuracy compared to standard unguided PQMC, while retaining polynomial computational cost. We benchmark our approach against conventional variational RNN ansätze and find that the autoregressive PQMC consistently achieves lower energies and higher fidelity, regardless of system size or whether the Hamiltonian is Hermitian or non-Hermitian. Our results highlight the versatility and power of neural-guided PQMC methods, paving the way for promising scalable simulations of low-energy states in complex quantum many-body systems.
We investigate the ground-state properties and quantum critical behavior of a non-Hermitian transverse-field Ising chain subjected to longitudinal and complex transverse magnetic fields. To address this interacting many-body problem, we employ real-valued neural quantum states based on Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs), optimized using Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) sampling. Spectral analysis of finite chains reveals exceptional points associated with spontaneous parity-time (PT) symmetry breaking. A real-valued RBM framework is developed to reconstruct the ground-state eigenstates of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Benchmark comparisons with exact diagonalization demonstrate that the RBM approach accurately reproduces the ground-state energy, magnetization, and spin-spin correlations. Extending the analysis to larger system sizes, we identify a non-Hermitian quantum phase transition characterized by PT-symmetry breaking and the emergence of magnetic order. Our results establish real-valued neural quantum states as an efficient and scalable framework for investigating critical phenomena in interacting non-Hermitian quantum systems.
Neural quantum states (NQSs) have emerged as a powerful ansatz for variational quantum Monte Carlo studies of strongly correlated systems. Here, we apply recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and autoregressive transformer neural networks to the Fermi-Hubbard and the (non-Hermitian) Hatano-Nelson-Hubbard models in one and two dimensions. In both cases, we observe that the convergence of the RNN ansatz is challenged when increasing the interaction strength. We present a physically motivated and easy-to-implement strategy for improving the optimization, namely, by ramping of the model parameters. Furthermore, we investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the autoregressive sampling property of both network architectures. For the Hatano-Nelson-Hubbard model, we identify convergence issues that stem from the autoregressive sampling scheme in combination with the non-Hermitian nature of the model. Our findings provide insights into the challenges of the NQS approach and make the first step towards exploring strongly correlated electrons using this ansatz.
Non-Hermitian (NH) quantum systems have emerged as a powerful framework for describing open quantum systems, nonequilibrium dynamics, and engineered quantum optical materials. However, solving the ground-state properties of NH systems is challenging due to the exponential scaling of the Hilbert space and exotic phenomena such as the emergence of exceptional points. Another challenge arises from the limitations of traditional methods like exact diagonalization (ED). For the past decade, neural networks (NNs) have shown promise in approximating many-body wavefunctions, yet their application to NH systems remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we explore different NN architectures to investigate the ground-state properties of a parity-time-symmetric, one-dimensional NH, transverse field Ising model with a complex spectrum by employing a recurrent neural network (RNN), a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), and a multilayer perceptron (MLP). We construct the NN-based many-body wavefunctions and validate our approach by recovering the ground-state properties of the model for small system sizes, finding excellent agreement with ED. Furthermore, for larger system sizes, we demonstrate that the RNN outperforms both the RBM and MLP. However, we show that the accuracy of the RBM and MLP can be significantly improved through transfer learning, allowing them to perform comparably to the RNN for larger system sizes. These results highlight the potential of neural-network-based approaches—particularly for accurately capturing the low-energy physics of NH quantum systems in case of both weak and strong non-Hermiticity.