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arXiv:2609.30148

Proper Agnostic Learning of Matrix Product States and Tree Tensor Networks

Constantin Cedillo Vayson de Pradenne, Jordan Cotler

quant-phSubmitted Sep 24, 2026• Announced Sep 25, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We establish proper agnostic learning of matrix product states and tree tensor networks. Given copies of an arbitrary quantum state $ρ$, our algorithms return a state $|ψ\rangle$ of chosen bond dimension such that $\langleψ| ρ|ψ\rangle$ is within $\varepsilon$ of the optimum over the model class, without assuming that $ρ$ itself belongs to or is well approximated by that class. The main idea is to use improper learning to compress the mixed-state objective, reducing proper agnostic learning to optimization against a finite collection of explicitly specified pure states. We then introduce a comparator-dual compression procedure that reduces the bond dimension of these targets while uniformly preserving their overlaps with all bounded-bond comparators, with an error independent of system size. For matrix product states, this gives polynomial copy complexity in the system size, local dimension, bond dimension, and $1/\varepsilon$, together with polynomial runtime in the system size for fixed local dimension, bond dimension, and accuracy. The same framework yields proper agnostic learning of tree tensor networks on bounded-degree trees, with both copy complexity and runtime polynomial in the system size when the remaining parameters are fixed.

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We establish proper agnostic learning of matrix product states and tree tensor networks. Given copies of an arbitrary quantum state ρρρ, our algorithms return a state ∣ψ⟩|ψ\rangle∣ψ⟩ of chosen bond dimension such that ⟨ψ∣ρ∣ψ⟩\langleψ| ρ|ψ\rangle⟨ψ∣ρ∣ψ⟩ is within ε\varepsilonε of the optimum over the model class, without assuming that ρρρ itself belongs to or is well approximated by that class. The main idea is to use improper learning to compress the mixed-state objective, reducing proper agnostic learning to optimization against a finite collection of explicitly specified pure states. We then introduce a comparator-dual compression procedure that reduces the bond dimension of these targets while uniformly preserving their overlaps with all bounded-bond comparators, with an error independent of system size. For matrix product states, this gives polynomial copy complexity in the system size, local dimension, bond dimension, and 1/ε1/\varepsilon1/ε, together with polynomial runtime in the system size for fixed local dimension, bond dimension, and accuracy. The same framework yields proper agnostic learning of tree tensor networks on bounded-degree trees, with both copy complexity and runtime polynomial in the system size when the remaining parameters are fixed.
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Tensor networks are used to efficiently approximate states of strongly-correlated quantum many-body systems. More generally, tensor network approximations may allow to reduce the costs for operating on an order-NNN tensor from exponential to polynomial in NNN, and this has become a popular approach for machine learning. We introduce the idea of imposing low-rank constraints on the tensors that compose the tensor network. With this modification, the time and space complexities for the network optimization can be substantially reduced while maintaining high accuracy. We detail this idea for tree tensor network states (TTNS) and projected entangled-pair states. Simulations of spin models on Cayley trees with low-rank TTNS exemplify the effect of rank constraints on the expressive power. We find that choosing the tensor rank rrr to be on the order of the bond dimension mmm, is sufficient to obtain high-accuracy groundstate approximations and to substantially outperform standard TTNS computations. Thus low-rank tensor networks are a promising route for the simulation of quantum matter and machine learning on large data sets.
Tree tensor network states (TTNS) generalize the notion of having low Schmidt-rank to multipartite quantum states, through a parameter known as the bond dimension. This leads to succinct representations of quantum many-body systems with a tree-like entanglement structure. In this work, we study the task of testing whether an unknown pure state is a TTNS onnqudits with bond dimension at mostr, or is far in trace distance from any such state. We first establish that, independent of the dimension of the state,O(nr2) copies suffice to accomplish this task with onesided error. We then prove that Ω(nr2/ logn) copies are necessary for any test with one-sided error wheneverr≥ 2 + logn. In particular, this closes a roughly quadratic gap in the previous bounds for testing matrix product states in this setting. On the other hand, whenr= 2 we show that Θ(√n) copies are both necessary and sufficient for the related task of testing whether a state is a product ofnbipartite states having Schmidt-rank at mostr, for some choice of the qudit dimensions. We also study the performance of tests using measurements performed on a small number of copies at a time. Here, we obtain new bounds for testing rank, Schmidt-rank, and TTNS when the tester is restricted to making measurements onr+ 1 copies of the state.
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