"Typical one-dimensional quantum systems at finite temperatures can be simulated efficiently on classical computers"
T. Barthel arXiv:1708.09349,
pdf
It is by now well-known that ground states of gapped one-dimensional (1d) quantum-many body systems with short-range interactions can be studied efficiently using classical computers and matrix product state techniques. A corresponding result for finite temperatures was missing. For 1d systems that can be described by a local 1+1d field theory, it is shown here that the cost for the classical simulation at finite temperatures grows in fact only polynomially with the inverse temperature and is system-size independent -- even for quantum critical systems. In particular, we show that the thermofield double state (TDS), a purification of the equilibrium density operator, can be obtained efficiently in matrix-product form. The argument is based on the scaling behavior of Rényi entanglement entropies in the TDS. At finite temperatures, they obey the area law. For quantum critical systems, the entanglement is found to grow only logarithmically with inverse temperature, S~log(beta). The field-theoretical results are confirmed by quasi-exact numerical simulations of quantum magnets and interacting bosons.
"Matrix product purifications for canonical ensembles and quantum number distributions"
T. Barthel arXiv:1607.01696,
pdf, Phys. Rev. B 94, 115157 (2016)
Matrix product purifications (MPPs) are a very efficient tool for the simulation of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems at finite temperatures. When a system features symmetries, these can be used to reduce computation costs substantially. It is straightforward to compute an MPP of a grand-canonical ensemble, also when symmetries are exploited. This paper provides and demonstrates methods for the efficient computation of MPPs of canonical ensembles under utilization of symmetries. Furthermore, we present a scheme for the evaluation of global quantum number distributions using matrix product density operators (MPDOs). We provide exact matrix product representations for canonical infinite-temperature states, and discuss how they can be constructed alternatively by applying matrix product operators to vacuum-type states or by using entangler Hamiltonians. A demonstration of the techniques for Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains explains why the difference in the energy densities of canonical and grand-canonical ensembles decays as 1/L.
"Real-space renormalization yields finitely correlated states"
T. Barthel, M. Kliesch, and J. Eisert arXiv:1003.2319,
pdf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 010502 (2010)
Real-space renormalization approaches for quantum lattice systems generate certain hierarchical classes of states that are subsumed by the multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA). It is shown that, with the exception of one dimension, MERA states can be efficiently mapped to finitely correlated states, also known as projected entangled pair states (PEPS), with a bond dimension independent of the system size. Hence, MERA states form an efficiently contractible class of PEPS and obey an area law for the entanglement entropy. It is shown further that there exist other efficiently contractible schemes violating the area law.
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