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arXiv:2607.22232

autotn: Automata-inspired construction of tensor-network operators from symbolic local rules

Aitor Morais, Izaskun Oregi, Iker Pastor-López, Eneko Osaba

Published Jul 24, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Matrix product operators (MPOs) are a standard representation for structured operators in tensor-network simulations and quantum computing applications. However, converting symbolic descriptions of Hamiltonians and cost functions into MPO representations often requires substantial manual implementation, making the process error-prone and difficult to reproduce. This paper presents autotn, an open-source Python software tool that converts symbolic operator rules into MPO representations. Users define local operators and interaction rules in a high-level format, and the software generates the corresponding MPO along with validation utilities. In doing so, the software follows an automata-inspired approach that identifies repeated patterns in the symbolic description of the operator and reuses them to build a compact tensor-network representation, avoiding the need to construct each tensor by hand. The current implementation of autotn supports both diagonal operators, commonly encountered in combinatorial optimization problems, and general local matrix operators used in quantum many-body physics. The software is demonstrated on Max-Cut cost operators, long-range XX+YY+Z spin Hamiltonians, and quantum clock models. By providing a reproducible workflow from symbolic model specification to validated MPO construction, autotn reduces the engineering effort required to develop, verify, and compare MPO constructions.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2607.22232

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Matrix product operators (MPOs) are a standard representation for structured operators in tensor-network simulations and quantum computing applications. However, converting symbolic descriptions of Hamiltonians and cost functions into MPO representations often requires substantial manual implementation, making the process error-prone and difficult to reproduce. This paper presents autotn, an open-source Python software tool that converts symbolic operator rules into MPO representations. Users define local operators and interaction rules in a high-level format, and the software generates the corresponding MPO along with validation utilities. In doing so, the software follows an automata-inspired approach that identifies repeated patterns in the symbolic description of the operator and reuses them to build a compact tensor-network representation, avoiding the need to construct each tensor by hand. The current implementation of autotn supports both diagonal operators, commonly encountered in combinatorial optimization problems, and general local matrix operators used in quantum many-body physics. The software is demonstrated on Max-Cut cost operators, long-range XX+YY+Z spin Hamiltonians, and quantum clock models. By providing a reproducible workflow from symbolic model specification to validated MPO construction, autotn reduces the engineering effort required to develop, verify, and compare MPO constructions.
Matrix product states and matrix product operators (MPOs) are one-dimensional tensor networks that underlie the modern density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm. The use of MPOs accounts for the high level of generality and wide range of applicability of DMRG. However, current algorithms for two-dimensional (2D) tensor network states, known as projected entangled-pair states, rarely employ the associated 2D tensor network operators, projected entangled-pair operators (PEPOs), due to their computational cost and conceptual complexity. To lower these two barriers, we describe how to reformulate a PEPO into a set of tensor network operators that resemble MPOs by considering the different sets of local operators that are generated from sequential bipartitions of the 2D system. The expectation value of a PEPO can then be evaluated on the fly using only the action of MPOs and generalized MPOs at each step of the approximate contraction of the 2D tensor network. This technique allows for the simpler construction and more efficient energy evaluation of 2D Hamiltonians that contain finite-range interactions, and provides an improved strategy to encode long-range interactions that is orders of magnitude more accurate and efficient than existing schemes.
Inspired by the recent progress in the simulation of tight-binding Hamiltonians on large lattices using tensor networks, we introduce a systematic matrix product operator (MPO) construction for single-particle Hamiltonians on recursively structured lattices. Taking advantage of this recursive structure, we encode the lattice geometry in a finite-state automaton and, adapting ideas from Abelian-symmetric tensor networks, obtain an exact and analytical MPO representation of the Hamiltonian, where the number of tensors grows logarithmically with the system size and the bond dimension is set by the number of automaton states. Several examples demonstrate the generality of the framework: regular lattices, fractals, Cayley trees, hyperbolic lattices, and one- and two-dimensional Fibonacci quasicrystals. Combined with the kernel polynomial method, these MPO representations enable large-scale calculations of spectral properties without explicitly constructing the full Hamiltonian. This provides a unified route to the exploration of electronic properties across a broad class of lattices at exponentially large system sizes.
This research introduces an improved framework for constructing matrix product operators and tree tensor network operators (TTNOs), crucial tools in quantum simulations. A given (Hamiltonian) operator typically has a known symbolic “sum of operator strings” form that can be translated into a tensor network structure. Combining the existing bipartite-graph-based approach and a newly introduced symbolic Gaussian elimination preprocessing step, our proposed method improves upon earlier algorithms in cases when Hamiltonian terms share the same prefactors. We test the performance of our method against established ones for benchmarking purposes. Finally, we apply our methodology to the model of a cavity filled with molecules in a solvent. This open quantum system is cast into the hierarchical equation of motion setting to obtain an effective Hamiltonian. Construction of the corresponding TTNO demonstrates a sublinear increase of the maximum bond dimension.
Abstract. Compactly representing and efficently applying linear operators are fundamental ingredients in tensor network methods for simulating quantum many-body problems and solving high-dimensional problems in scientific computing. In this work, we study such representations for tree tensor networks, the so-called tree tensor network operators (TTNOs), paying particular attention to Hamiltonian operators that involve long-range pairwise interactions between particles. Generalizing the work by Lin, Tong, and others on matrix product operators, we establish a direct connection between the hierarchical low-rank structure of the interaction matrix and the TTNO property. This connection allows us to arrive at very compact TTNO representations by compressing the interaction matrix into a hierarchically semiseparable matrix. Numerical experiments for different quantum spin systems validate our results and highlight the potential advantages of TTNOs over matrix product operators.
We develop a block-encoding compiler that treats matrix product operators as compressed, virtual-path linear combination of unitaries programs. The compiler constructs conditional PREP and local SELECT stages directly from a parent matrix product operator, establishing tensor networks as structured quantum intermediate representations that can be efficiently compiled to block-encoded circuits. We apply the construction to real-time evolution in the Heisenberg chain and two perturbed Heisenberg-family models. Across the regimes studied, the compressed, approximately unitary propagator MPOs retain mild bond dimension and LCU normalization. Relative to an LCU that explicitly lists the O(NK)\mathcal{O}(N^K)O(NK) Pauli-product branches of an order-K truncated Taylor polynomial, our virtual-transition implementation replaces combinatorial branch enumeration by a circuit complexity scaling as O(αMPONχ2)\mathcal{O}(α_{\rm MPO}Nχ^2)O(αMPO​Nχ2), approaching O(Nχ2)\mathcal{O}(Nχ^2)O(Nχ2) when αMPOα_{\rm MPO}αMPO​ remains mild. We numerically characterize how truncation order, bond-dimension budget, and system size affect approximation error, normalization, and compiler cost. These results demonstrate how classically compressed tensor-network representations can serve as quantum compiler intermediate representations for block encoding and opens new avenues to accelerate quantum algorithms.
This is a set of lectures on tensor networks with a strong emphasis on the core algorithms involving Matrix Product States (MPS) and Matrix Product Operators (MPO). Compared to other presentations, particular care has been given to disentangle aspects of tensor networks from the quantum many-body problem: MPO/MPS algorithms are presented as a way to deal with linear algebra on extremely (exponentially) large matrices and vectors, regardless of any particular application. The lectures include well-known algorithms to find eigenvectors of MPOs (the celebrated DMRG), solve linear problems, and recent learning algorithms that allow one to map a known function into an MPS (the Tensor Cross Interpolation, or TCI, algorithm). The lectures end with a discussion of how to represent functions and perform calculus with tensor networks using the "quantics" representation. They include the detailed analytical construction of important MPOs such as those for differentiation, indefinite integration, convolution, and the quantum Fourier transform. Three concrete applications are discussed in detail: the simulation of a quantum computer (either exactly or with compression), the simulation of a quantum annealer, and techniques to solve partial differential equations (e.g. Poisson, diffusion, or Gross-Pitaevskii) within the "quantics" representation. The lectures have been designed to be accessible to a first-year PhD student and include detailed proofs of all statements.