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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Density-matrix algorithms for quantum renormalization groups

Steven R. White

Published Oct 1, 1993• 3,244 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A formulation of numerical real-space renormalization groups for quantum many-body problems is presented and several algorithms utilizing this formulation are outlined. The methods are presented and demonstrated using S=1/2 and S=1 Heisenberg chains as test cases. The key idea of the formulation is that rather than keep the lowest-lying eigenstates of the Hamiltonian in forming a new effective Hamiltonian of a block of sites, one should keep the most significant eigenstates of the block density matrix, obtained from diagonalizing the Hamiltonian of a larger section of the lattice which includes the block. This approach is much more accurate than the standard approach; for example, energies for the S=1 Heisenberg chain can be obtained to an accuracy of at least ${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}9}$. The method can be applied to almost any one-dimensional quantum lattice system, and can provide a wide variety of static properties.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.48.10345

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A formulation of numerical real-space renormalization groups for quantum many-body problems is presented and several algorithms utilizing this formulation are outlined. The methods are presented and demonstrated using S=1/2 and S=1 Heisenberg chains as test cases. The key idea of the formulation is that rather than keep the lowest-lying eigenstates of the Hamiltonian in forming a new effective Hamiltonian of a block of sites, one should keep the most significant eigenstates of the block density matrix, obtained from diagonalizing the Hamiltonian of a larger section of the lattice which includes the block. This approach is much more accurate than the standard approach; for example, energies for the S=1 Heisenberg chain can be obtained to an accuracy of at least 10\ensuremath−9{10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}9}10\ensuremath−9. The method can be applied to almost any one-dimensional quantum lattice system, and can provide a wide variety of static properties.
A variant of White's density-matrix renormalization-group scheme, which is designed to compute low-lying energies of one-dimensional quantum lattice models with a large number of degrees of freedom per site is described. The method is tested on two exactly solvable models---the spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain and a dimerized XY\mathrm{XY}XY spin chain. To illustrate the potential of the method, it is applied to a model of spins interacting with quantum phonons. It is shown that the method accurately resolves a number of energy gaps on periodic rings that are sufficiently large to afford an accurate investigation of critical properties via the use of finite-size scaling theory.
Although originally thought to show great promise in solving quantum many-body problems on a lattice, numerical real-space renormalization-group techniques have had little success for such problems. We explore the nature of the difficulties involved by studying the applicaton of the method to the simple tight-binding model in one dimension. The standard approach fails dramatically for this model. We show that the key to successfully applying the renormalization-group technique lies in applying a variety of boundary conditions to a block in order to simulate the effect of neighboring blocks.
Abstract The physical properties of a quantum many-body system can, in principle, be determined by diagonalizing the respective Hamiltonian, but the dimensions of its matrix representation scale exponentially with the number of degrees of freedom. Hence, only small systems that are described through simple models can be tackled via exact diagonalization. To overcome this limitation, numerical methods based on the renormalization group paradigm that restrict the quantum many-body problem to a manageable subspace of the exponentially large full Hilbert space have been put forth. A striking example is the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG), which has become the reference numerical method to obtain the low-energy properties of one-dimensional quantum systems with short-range interactions. Here, we provide a pedagogical introduction to DMRG, presenting both its original formulation and its modern tensor-network-based version. This colloquium sets itself apart from previous contributions in two ways. First, didactic code implementations are provided to bridge the gap between conceptual and practical understanding. Second, a concise and self-contained introduction to the tensor-network methods employed in the modern version of DMRG is given, thus allowing the reader to effortlessly cross the deep chasm between the two formulations of DMRG without having to explore the broad literature on tensor networks. We expect this pedagogical review to find wide readership among students and researchers who are taking their first steps in numerical simulations via DMRG. Graphic abstract
A density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) approach is presented for quantum systems of two spatial dimensions. In particular, it is shown that it is possible to create a multichain-type two-dimensional (2D) DMRG approach that utilizes previously determined system and environment blocks at all points. One first builds up an effective quasi-1D system and environment blocks of width L and these quasi-1D blocks are then used to as the initial building blocks of the 2D infinite-lattice algorithm introduced here. This algorithm is found to be competitive with those results of previous 2D DMRG algorithms and also of the best of other approximate methods. An illustration of this is given for the spin-half and spin-one Heisenberg models on the square lattice. The best results for the ground-state energies per bond of the spin-half and spin-one square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnets for the $N=20\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}20$ lattice using this treatment are given by ${E}_{g}{/N}_{B}=\ensuremath{-}0.3321$ and ${E}_{g}{/N}_{B}=\ensuremath{-}1.1525,$ respectively.
In these lecture notes, we present a pedagogical review of a number of related numerically exact approaches to quantum many‐body problems. In particular, we focus on methods based on the exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix and on methods extending exact diagonalization using renormalization group ideas, i.e., Wilson’s Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) and White’s Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). These methods are standard tools for the investigation of a variety of interacting quantum systems, especially low‐dimensional quantum lattice models. We also survey extensions to the methods to calculate properties such as dynamical quantities and behavior at finite temperature, and discuss generalizations of the DMRG method to a wider variety of systems, such as classical models and quantum chemical problems. Finally, we briefly review some recent developments for obtaining a more general formulation of the DMRG in the context of matrix product states as well as recent progress in calculating the time evolution of quantum systems using the DMRG and the relationship of the foundations of the method with quantum information theory.