This chapter is focused on the quantum entanglement simulation approach (Ran et al., Phys Rev B 96:155120, 2017). The idea is to use few-body models embedded in the “entanglement bath” to mimic the properties of large and infinite-size quantum systems. The few-body models are dubbed as quantum entanglement simulators. Generally speaking, the QES Quantum entanglement simulation/simulator (QES) approach consists of three stages: first, determine the effective interactions that give the infinite boundary condition (Ran et al., Phys Rev B 96:155120, 2017; Phien et al., Phys Rev B 86:245107, 2012) by the MPS/PEPS Matrix product state (MPS) Projected entangled pair state (PEPS) methods, such as iDMRG Infinite density matrix renormalization group (iDMRG) in one dimension or zero-loop scheme in two and three dimensions; second, construct the simulators by surrounding a finite-size cluster of the targeted model with the effective interactions; third, simulate the properties of the quantum entanglement simulator by the finite-size algorithms or quantum hardware, and extract the properties of the targeted model within the bulk.
This chapter is focused on the quantum entanglement simulation approach (Ran et al., Phys Rev B 96:155120, 2017). The idea is to use few-body models embedded in the “entanglement bath” to mimic the properties of large and infinite-size quantum systems. The few-body models are dubbed as quantum entanglement simulators. Generally speaking, the QES Quantum entanglement simulation/simulator (QES) approach consists of three stages: first, determine the effective interactions that give the infinite boundary condition (Ran et al., Phys Rev B 96:155120, 2017; Phien et al., Phys Rev B 86:245107, 2012) by the MPS/PEPS Matrix product state (MPS) Projected entangled pair state (PEPS) methods, such as iDMRG Infinite density matrix renormalization group (iDMRG) in one dimension or zero-loop scheme in two and three dimensions; second, construct the simulators by surrounding a finite-size cluster of the targeted model with the effective interactions; third, simulate the properties of the quantum entanglement simulator by the finite-size algorithms or quantum hardware, and extract the properties of the targeted model within the bulk.
The study of interacting quantum many-body systems is one of the central challenges in modern physics. Interestingly, by understanding the physical properties of such systems from a microscopic description, one can explain many complex quantum phenomena such as the high-temperature superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect, etc. However, due to high complexity of these systems, theoretical investigations such as analytical and perturbation theories are limited to studying only a small subset of problems. In the past few decades, numerical simulation has emerged as an indispensable method for studying many phenomena, and has led to immense success and progress in recent years. The main obstacle in addressing quantum many-body systems is that the number of parameters required to represent a state of the system scales exponentially with the system size. However, one hardly needs the full Hilbert space but only a small subspace to describe physical properties of the system. From the point of view in quantum information theory, quantum entanglement is one of the main factors that is responsible for the complexity of studying quantum many-body systems. In particular, the amount of quantum entanglement in such system quantifies the correlation between constituents and therefore it determines how big the subspace is required to represent the system. In this thesis, we are interested in using tensor network states, a new emerging numerical technique to study dynamical and ground state properties of the system. The key ingredient is that a tensor network state which consists of a fairly small number of parameters can represent very well the complete wave function of a system. In one spatial dimension, Matrix Product State (MPS) has become a standard tool, combined with related algorithms such as Time Evolving Block Decimation algorithm (TEBD) to study dynamical properties of a locally-perturbed quantum lattice system. In this thesis, we introduce a technique called ``infinite boundary conditions'' that allows us to use a finite-size MPS to represent the state of an infinite-size system. As a result, one can simulate dynamics of a system for a longer time with a significant computational cost reduction compared to traditional methods. In two spatial dimensions, the tensor network known as Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) is emerging as a useful approach. However algorithms for optimizing the matrix elements of these tensors are complex and not very efficient. In particular, the efficiency of the optimization depends critically on the quality of the so-called ``environment'', which is expensive to compute. We have introduced a new method to accelerate the convergence of calculating the PEPS ground state by recycling the environment tensors for many optimization steps, vastly reducing the number of times that the full environment needs to be calculated.
In this work we propose to simulate many-body thermodynamics of infinite-size quantum lattice models in one, two, and three dimensions, in terms of few-body models of only O(10) sites, which we coin as quantum entanglement simulators (QES's). The QES is described by a temperature-independent Hamiltonian, with the boundary interactions optimized by the tensor network methods to mimic the entanglement between the bulk and environment in a finite-size canonical ensemble. The reduced density matrix of the physical bulk then gives that of the infinite-size canonical ensemble under interest. We show that the QES can, for instance, accurately simulate varieties of many-body phenomena, including finite-temperature crossover and algebraic excitations of the one-dimensional spin liquid, the phase transitions and low-temperature physics of the two- and three-dimensional antiferromagnets, and the crossovers of the two-dimensional topological system. Our work provides an efficient way to explore the thermodynamics of intractable quantum many-body systems with easily accessible systems.
Determining the properties of quantum many-body systems is a central challenge in modern physics. Being able to determine the macroscopic properties of a system from its microscopic description would hasten progress in many fields of science and technology. However, we currently lack the tools to solve such problems generally, or even to develop a theoretical intuition about how many systems might behave. From a simple Hamiltonian description of the system, one may obtain complex, highly correlated collective behaviour. Computational techniques have played a major part in the effort to determine properties of quantum many-body systems. However, as the total degrees of freedom in the system scales exponentially in the system size, numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian quickly becomes computationally intractable and one must develop more efficient approximate techniques to explore the system. Present numerical methods such as quantum Monte Carlo and series expansion have provided insight into many systems of interest, but are also held back by fundamental difficulties. In this thesis, we focus on tensor networks, a relatively new ansatz for representing quantum many-body states. Tensor networks are motivated by two ideas from quantum information: firstly, that quantum entanglement is the source of the immense difficulty of simulating quantum systems classically, and secondly that the ground states of certain Hamiltonians exist in a low-entanglement region of the entire Hilbert space. The strength of tensor networks is that they provide a systematic way of representing this class of low-entanglement quantum states. In particular, this thesis describes the iPEPS algorithm for computing the ground states of infinite, two-dimensional quantum lattice systems based on the Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) ansatz. We then benchmark the algorithm by computing the phase diagrams of several systems that have been studied with other techniques. Lastly, we apply our algorithm to problems that are not well solved by current approaches, such as frustrated spin systems.
These notes provide an introduction to tensor-network methods in quantum many-body physics, with an emphasis on matrix-product states (MPS). They develop the basic tensor-network language, including graphical notation, virtual indices, bond dimensions, gauge freedom, canonical forms, QR and singular-value decompositions, and the role of entanglement in controlling the efficiency of the representation. The main MPS algorithms are then introduced, including contractions, correlation functions, matrix-product operators, DMRG, and time-evolution methods. The notes also briefly discuss projected entangled-pair states (PEPS) as a higher-dimensional generalization of MPS, together with the basic ideas behind approximate PEPS contraction. Finally, tensor-network representations of mixed states, quantum channels, and Lindblad dynamics are presented, with applications to thermal states and open quantum systems. The presentation is accompanied by short Julia code examples based on ITensor, ITensorMPS, and TensorMixedStates. These notes were written for the 9th Les Houches Summer School on Computational Physics: Open Quantum Systems, held in June 2026.
The study of quantum computations that can be simulated efficiently classically is of interest for numerous reasons. On a fundamental level, such an investigation sheds light on the intrinsic computational power that is harnessed in quantum mechanics as compared to classical physics. More practically, understanding which quantum computations do not offer any speed-ups over classical computation provides insights in where (not) to look for novel quantum algorithmic primitives. On the other hand, classical simulation of many-body systems is a challenging task, as the dimension of the Hilbert space scales with the number of particles. Therefore, to understand the properties of the systems, suitable approximation methods need to be employed. The lectures will be divided into two parts. In the first part we discuss classical simulation of quantum computation from several perspectives. We review a number of well-known examples of classically simulatable quantum computations, such as the Gottesman-Knill theorem, matchgate simulation and tensor contraction methods. We further discuss simulation methods that are centred on classical sampling methods (‘weak simulation’), and illustrate how these techniques outperform methods that rely on the exact computation of measurement probabilities (‘strong simulation’). The second part focuses on "Entanglement and variational wavefunctions in quantum many body physics". We review the idea of entanglement in quantum many-body systems and how it helps us to understand the success of numerical renormalization group methods. In particular we will discuss a few variational wave-function based methods for simulating strongly correlated quantum systems, which include (1) matrix product states (2) multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (3) projected entangled pair states and (4) continuous matrix product states for quantum field theories.
The study of quantum computations that can be simulated efficiently classically is of interest for numerous reasons. On a fundamental level, such an investigation sheds light on the intrinsic computational power that is harnessed in quantum mechanics as compared to classical physics. More practically, understanding which quantum computations do not offer any speed-ups over classical computation provides insights in where (not) to look for novel quantum algorithmic primitives. On the other hand, classical simulation of many-body systems is a challenging task, as the dimension of the Hilbert space scales with the number of particles. Therefore, to understand the properties of the systems, suitable approximation methods need to be employed. The lectures will be divided into two parts. In the first part we discuss classical simulation of quantum computation from several perspectives. We review a number of well-known examples of classically simulatable quantum computations, such as the Gottesman-Knill theorem, matchgate simulation and tensor contraction methods. We further discuss simulation methods that are centred on classical sampling methods (‘weak simulation’), and illustrate how these techniques outperform methods that rely on the exact computation of measurement probabilities (‘strong simulation’). The second part focuses on "Entanglement and variational wavefunctions in quantum many body physics". We review the idea of entanglement in quantum many-body systems and how it helps us to understand the success of numerical renormalization group methods. In particular we will discuss a few variational wave-function based methods for simulating strongly correlated quantum systems, which include (1) matrix product states (2) multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (3) projected entangled pair states and (4) continuous matrix product states for quantum field theories.