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Applications of machine learning to studies of quantum phase transitions

Laura Malo Roset

Published Sep 6, 2019• 5 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In the past years Machine Learning has shown to be a useful tool in quantum many-body physics to detect phase transitions. Being able to identify phases via machine learning introduces the question of how did the algorithm learn to classify them, and thus how to interpret the model?s prediction. In this thesis we present a study of the transition from a normal insulator to a topological insulator. We study this quantum phase transition in the framework of the Su-Schrie?er-Heeger model. In the area of Deep Learning, we introduce two models, a normal convolutional neural network and a model based on deep residual learning. In particular, we focus on the interpretability of the model and its prediction by generating class activation maps (CAM) using a global average pooling (GAP) layer. We show the application of this technique by applying it on the model without disorder and with disorder. Here we give further analysis of the detection of states using transfer learning from no disordered to disordered systems. We conclude that the neural network is able to detect edge states when there is no disorder but unable to distinguish between edge states and Anderson localized states when disorder is introduced.

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In the past years Machine Learning has shown to be a useful tool in quantum many-body physics to detect phase transitions. Being able to identify phases via machine learning introduces the question of how did the algorithm learn to classify them, and thus how to interpret the model?s prediction. In this thesis we present a study of the transition from a normal insulator to a topological insulator. We study this quantum phase transition in the framework of the Su-Schrie?er-Heeger model. In the area of Deep Learning, we introduce two models, a normal convolutional neural network and a model based on deep residual learning. In particular, we focus on the interpretability of the model and its prediction by generating class activation maps (CAM) using a global average pooling (GAP) layer. We show the application of this technique by applying it on the model without disorder and with disorder. Here we give further analysis of the detection of states using transfer learning from no disordered to disordered systems. We conclude that the neural network is able to detect edge states when there is no disorder but unable to distinguish between edge states and Anderson localized states when disorder is introduced.
The identification and characterization of phase transitions is one of the oldest and most central problems in condensed matter physics, traditionally approached through order parameters, free-energy expansions, renormalization-group analysis, and direct numerical simulation. Over the past decade, machine learning (ML) has emerged as a complementary and, in some regimes, transformative methodology for this task. Supervised classifiers can learn to distinguish phases directly from raw configurations without an a priori order parameter; unsupervised and self-supervised techniques such as principal component analysis, autoencoders, and learning-by-confusion can locate transition points with minimal or no labeled data; and generative and variational architectures, including neural-network quantum states, now approximate ground-state wavefunctions of strongly correlated systems well beyond the reach of exact diagonalization. This paper reviews the theoretical foundations of phase transitions relevant to machine-learning applications, surveys the principal families of algorithms used to detect and classify phases, and examines their application across classical spin systems, percolation, topological and quantum phases, strongly correlated electron systems, and experimentally measured spectroscopic data. Representative case studies are discussed, including convolutional and graph-neural-network classifiers of lattice configurations, explainable-ML detection of thermodynamic transitions in photoemission spectra, and deep-learning-guided discovery of high-temperature superconductors. The review closes with a critical discussion of persistent challenges interpretability, data scarcity in correlated-electron experiments, generalization across Hamiltonians, and the reliability of learned order parameters near criticality and outlines directions for future research, including physics-informed architectures, uncertainty quantification, and closed-loop integration with autonomous experimentation.
Three-dimensional random electron systems undergo quantum phase transitions and show rich phase diagrams. Examples of the phases are the band gap insulator, Anderson insulator, strong and weak topological insulators, Weyl semimetal, and diffusive metal. As in the previous paper on two-dimensional quantum phase transitions [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. vol. 85, 123706 (2016)], we use an image recognition algorithm based on a multilayered convolutional neural network to identify which phase the eigenfunction belongs to. The Anderson model for localization-delocalization transition, the Wilson--Dirac model for topological insulators, and the layered Chern insulator model for Weyl semimetal are studied. The situation where the standard transfer matrix approach is not applicable is also treated by this method.
Although classifying topological quantum phases have attracted great interests, the absence of local order parameter generically makes it challenging to detect a topological phase transition from experimental data. Recent advances in machine learning algorithms enable physicists to analyze experimental data with unprecedented high sensitivities, and identify quantum phases even in the presence of unavoidable noises. Here, we report a successful identification of topological phase transitions using a deep convolutional neural network trained with low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) experimental data obtained in a symmetry-protected topological system of spin-orbit-coupled fermions. We apply the trained network to unseen data to map out a whole phase diagram, which predicts the positions of the two topological phase transitions that are consistent with the results obtained by using the conventional method on higher SNR data. By visualizing the filters and post-convolutional results of the convolutional layer, we further find that the CNN uses the same information to make the classification in the system as the conventional analysis, namely spin imbalance, but with an advantage concerning SNR. Our work highlights the potential of machine learning techniques to be used in various quantum systems.
Applications of neural networks to condensed matter physics are becoming popular and beginning to be well accepted. Obtaining and representing the ground and excited state wave functions are examples of such applications. Another application is analyzing the wave functions and determining their quantum phases. Here, we review the recent progress of using the multilayer convolutional neural network, so-called deep learning, to determine the quantum phases in random electron systems. After training the neural network by the supervised learning of wave functions in restricted parameter regions in known phases, the neural networks can determine the phases of the wave functions in wide parameter regions in unknown phases; hence, the phase diagrams are obtained. We demonstrate the validity and generality of this method by drawing the phase diagrams of two- and higher dimensional Anderson metal-insulator transitions and quantum percolations as well as disordered topological systems such as three-dimensional topological insulators and Weyl semimetals. Both real-space and Fourier space wave functions are analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages over conventional methods are discussed.
We report an experimental demonstration of a machine learning approach to identify exotic topological phases, with a focus on the three-dimensional chiral topological insulators. We show that the convolutional neural networks-a class of deep feed-forward artificial neural networks with widespread applications in machine learning-can be trained to successfully identify different topological phases protected by chiral symmetry from experimental raw data generated with a solid-state quantum simulator. Our results explicitly showcase the exceptional power of machine learning in the experimental detection of topological phases, which paves a way to study rich topological phenomena with the machine learning toolbox.
The application of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to statistical physic problems has seen a surge of interest for their ability to discriminate phases of matter by extracting essential features in the many-body wavefunction or the ensemble of correlators sampled in Monte Carlo simulations. Here we introduce a gener- alization of supervised machine learning approaches that allows to accurately map out phase diagrams of inter- acting many-body systems without any prior knowledge, e.g. of their general topology or the number of distinct phases. To substantiate the versatility of this approach, which combines convolutional neural networks with quantum Monte Carlo sampling, we map out the phase diagrams of interacting boson and fermion models both at zero and finite temperatures and show that first-order, second-order, and Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transitions can all be identified. We explicitly demonstrate that our approach is capable of identifying the phase transition to non-trivial many-body phases such as superfluids or topologically ordered phases without supervision.