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arXiv:nucl-th/0009021 · Physical Review C

Complex Langevin equation and the many-fermion problem

Christoph Adami, S. E. Koonin

Published Feb 20, 2001• 14 citations
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Abstract

We study the utility of a complex Langevin (CL) equation as an alternative for the Monte Carlo (MC) procedure in the evaluation of expectation values occurring in fermionic many-body problems. We find that a CL approach is natural in cases where nonpositive definite probability measures occur, and remains accurate even when the corresponding MC calculation develops a severe ``sign problem.'' While the convergence of CL averages cannot be guaranteed in principle, we show how convergent results can be obtained in two simple quantum mechanical models, as well as a nontrivial schematic shell model path integral with multiple particles and a noncommuting interaction (the Lipkin model).

DOI
10.1103/physrevc.63.034319

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The non-perturbative dynamics plays important roles in quantum field theories and superstring theory.Monte Carlo calculation of the systems is one of the useful methods to study non-perturbative dynamics.There are many successful works.However, the usual Monte Carlo methods are not applicable, for example, in the Lorentzian metric case, theories with a θ term, theories at finite density, and so on.In such cases, since the Boltzmann weight becomes complex, it is not possible to interpret the weight as the probability.This problem is called the sign problem.Some methods to overcome the sign problem have been proposed.The complex Langevin method (CLM) is one of such methods.An advantage of the method compared with others is that the numerical cost for increasing the system size is reasonable.This method was applied to many toy models, in which it worked well.However, the applications to physically interesting models are not so many.In our work, we apply the CLM to the gauge theories with a θ term and the Lorentzian type IIB matrix model.As a validity test of the CLM for the gauge theories with a θ term, we first apply the CLM to the 2d U(1) gauge theory on the torus with a θ term which is solvable with finite lattice spacing and finite volume on an arbitrary manifold.We find that a naive implementation of the method fails because of the topological nature of the θ term.In order to circumvent this problem, we simulate the same theory on a punctured torus, which is equivalent to the original model in the infinite volume limit for |θ| < π.Rather surprisingly, we find that the CLM works and reproduces the exact results for a punctured torus even at large θ, where the link variables near the puncture become very far from being unitary.Since the application of the CLM to the 2d U(1) case is successful, we next apply the CLM to the 4d SU(2) case.There are interesting predictions for the phase structure around θ = π by using 't Hooft anomaly matching condition.Therefore our aim is to investigate the phase structure by the first principle calculation.We apply the CLM to the theory on a torus and find that, in the coarse lattice case, there is no freezing of topological charge.Although the CLM works well even at large θ, we cannot see the 2π periodicity due to the finite lattice spacing effects.Therefore, we need to decrease the lattice spacing.However, there is the freezing problem in the fine lattice case.We try to solve the problem by imposing the periodic boundary conditions We find that imposing the open boundary condition in all spatial directions alleviates the topology freezing sufficiently, and the CLM works well at large θ.However, the finite volume effect occurs as a drawback of the open boundary conditions.We also discuss the possible way to investigate the phase structure.The Lorentzian type IIB matrix model was proposed as a non-perturbative formulation of superstring theory in 1996.The emergence of (3+1)-dimensional expanding space-time in the model is an intriguing phenomenon which was observed in Monte Carlo studies of

•Mar 24, 2021•0 citations
We study the utility of a complex Langevin (CL) equation as an alternative for the Monte Carlo (MC) procedure in the evaluation of expectation values occurring in fermionic many-body problems. We find that a CL approach is natural in cases where nonpositive definite probability measures occur, and remains accurate even when the corresponding MC calculation develops a severe ``sign problem.'' While the convergence of CL averages cannot be guaranteed in principle, we show how convergent results can be obtained in two simple quantum mechanical models, as well as a nontrivial schematic shell model path integral with multiple particles and a noncommuting interaction (the Lipkin model).
Quantitative numerical analyses of interacting dilute Bose-Einstein condensates are most often based on semiclassical approximations. Since the complex-valued field-theoretic action of the Bose gas does not offer itself to the direct application of standard Monte Carlo techniques, simulations beyond their scope by now almost exclusively rely on quantum-mechanical techniques. Here we explore an alternative approach based on a Langevin-type sampling in an extended state space, known as the complex Langevin (CL) algorithm. While the use of the CL technique has a long-standing history in high-energy physics, in particular in the simulation of QCD at finite baryon density, applications to ultracold atoms are still in their infancy. Here we examine the applicability of the CL approach for a one- and two-component, three-dimensional nonrelativistic Bose gas in thermal equilibrium, below and above the Bose-Einstein phase transition. By comparison with analytic descriptions at the Gaussian level, including Bogoliubov and Hartree-Fock theory, we find that the method allows computing reliably and efficiently observables in the regime of experimentally accessible parameters. Close to the transition, quantum corrections lead to a shift of the critical temperature which we reproduce within the numerical range known in the literature. With this work, we aim to provide a first test of CL as a potential out-of-the-box tool for the simulation of experimentally realistic situations, including trapping geometries and multicomponent (or multiple species) models.
The calculation of the ground state and thermodynamics of mass-imbalanced Fermi systems is a challenging many-body problem. Even in one spatial dimension, analytic solutions are limited to special configurations and numerical progress with standard Monte Carlo approaches is hindered by the sign problem. The focus of the present work is on the further development of methods to study imbalanced systems in a fully nonperturbative fashion. We report our calculations of the ground-state energy of mass-imbalanced fermions using two different approaches which are also very popular in the context of the theory of the strong interaction (quantum chromodynamics, QCD): (a) the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm with imaginary mass imbalance, followed by an analytic continuation to the real axis; and (b) the complex Langevin algorithm. We cover a range of on-site interaction strengths that includes strongly attractive as well as strongly repulsive cases which we verify with nonperturbative renormalization group methods and perturbation theory. Our findings indicate that, for strong repulsive couplings, the energy starts to flatten out, implying interesting consequences for short-range and high-frequency correlation functions. Overall, our results clearly indicate that the complex Langevin approach is very versatile and works very well for imbalanced Fermi gases with both attractive and repulsive interactions.
Abstract Over the past decades, quantum Monte Carlo methods have proven to be very valuable for the study of quantum‐mechanical many‐body systems. The basic ingredient of theses methods is a decomposition of the imaginary‐time evolution operator into path integrals. These paths can then be sampled using Monte Carlo techniques. Though very successful for bosons, these methods often have troubles in dealing with fermions: the fermionic antisymmetry leads to a ‘sign problem’. One approach, the auxiliary‐field method, has yielded slightly better results in dealing with the sign problem. Some recent developments on this method are highlighted. As a case study, it is applied to a pairing model for Fe nuclei, where indications are found for a phase transition related to nucleon–nucleon pairing.
We present novel Monte Carlo methods for treating the interacting shell model that allow exact calculations much larger than those heretofore possible. The two-body interaction is linearized by an auxiliary field; Monte Carlo evaluation of the resulting functional integral gives ground-state or thermal expectation values of few-body operators. The ``sign problem'' generic to quantum Monte Carlo calculations is absent in a number of cases. We discuss the favorable scaling of these methods with nucleon number and basis size and their suitability to parallel computation.
The non-perturbative dynamics plays important roles in quantum field theories and superstring theory.Monte Carlo calculation of the systems is one of the useful methods to study non-perturbative dynamics.There are many successful works.However, the usual Monte Carlo methods are not applicable, for example, in the Lorentzian metric case, theories with a θ term, theories at finite density, and so on.In such cases, since the Boltzmann weight becomes complex, it is not possible to interpret the weight as the probability.This problem is called the sign problem.Some methods to overcome the sign problem have been proposed.The complex Langevin method (CLM) is one of such methods.An advantage of the method compared with others is that the numerical cost for increasing the system size is reasonable.This method was applied to many toy models, in which it worked well.However, the applications to physically interesting models are not so many.In our work, we apply the CLM to the gauge theories with a θ term and the Lorentzian type IIB matrix model.As a validity test of the CLM for the gauge theories with a θ term, we first apply the CLM to the 2d U(1) gauge theory on the torus with a θ term which is solvable with finite lattice spacing and finite volume on an arbitrary manifold.We find that a naive implementation of the method fails because of the topological nature of the θ term.In order to circumvent this problem, we simulate the same theory on a punctured torus, which is equivalent to the original model in the infinite volume limit for |θ| < π.Rather surprisingly, we find that the CLM works and reproduces the exact results for a punctured torus even at large θ, where the link variables near the puncture become very far from being unitary.Since the application of the CLM to the 2d U(1) case is successful, we next apply the CLM to the 4d SU(2) case.There are interesting predictions for the phase structure around θ = π by using 't Hooft anomaly matching condition.Therefore our aim is to investigate the phase structure by the first principle calculation.We apply the CLM to the theory on a torus and find that, in the coarse lattice case, there is no freezing of topological charge.Although the CLM works well even at large θ, we cannot see the 2π periodicity due to the finite lattice spacing effects.Therefore, we need to decrease the lattice spacing.However, there is the freezing problem in the fine lattice case.We try to solve the problem by imposing the periodic boundary conditions We find that imposing the open boundary condition in all spatial directions alleviates the topology freezing sufficiently, and the CLM works well at large θ.However, the finite volume effect occurs as a drawback of the open boundary conditions.We also discuss the possible way to investigate the phase structure.The Lorentzian type IIB matrix model was proposed as a non-perturbative formulation of superstring theory in 1996.The emergence of (3+1)-dimensional expanding space-time in the model is an intriguing phenomenon which was observed in Monte Carlo studies of