Condensed Matter

According to a recent proposal, in the AdS/CFT correspondence the circuit complexity of a CFT state is dual to the Einstein-Hilbert action of a certain region in the dual space-time. If the proposal is correct, it should be possible to derive Einstein's equations by varying the complexity in a class of circuits that prepare the requisite CFT state. This talk attempts such a derivation in very special settings: Virasoro descendants of the CFT2 ground state, which are dual to locally AdS3 geometries. By applying Tensor Network Renormalization to the discretized Euclidean path integral that prepares the CFT state, I will justify the recent suggestion by Caputa et al. that the complexity of a path integral is quantified by the Liouville action. The Liouville field specifies the conformal frame in which the path integral is evaluated; in the most efficient / least complexity frame, the Liouville field is closely related to entanglement entropies of CFT2 intervals. Assuming the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal, the said entanglement entropies are lengths of geodesics living in the dual space-time. The Liouville equation of motion satisfied by the minimal complexity Liouville field is a geodesic-wise rewriting of the non-linear vacuum Einstein's equations in 3d with a negative cosmological constant. I emphasize that this is very much work in progress; I hope the audience will help me to sharpen the arguments.

I will describe some recent work studying proposals for computational complexity in holographic theories and in quantum field theories. In particular, I will discuss some interesting properties of the new gravitational observables and of complexity in the boundary theory.

In this talk, I would like to discuss how we can realize the correspondence between AdS/CFT and tensor network in quantum field theories (i.e. the continous limit). As the first approach I will discuss a possible connection between continuous MERA and AdS/CFT. Next I will introduce the second approach based on the optimization of Euclidean path-integral, where the strcutures of hyperbolic spaces and entanglement wedges emerge naturally. This second appraoch is closely related to the idea of tensor network renormalization.

We will review the topic of tensor network renormalization, relate it to real space Hamiltonian flows, and discuss the emergence of matrix product operator algebras as symmetries of the renormalization fixed points. joint work with Matthias Bal, Michael Marien and Jutho Haegeman

I will discuss analytic approaches to construct tensor network representations of quantum field theories, more specifically conformal field theories in 1+1 dimensions. A key insight is that we should understand how well the tensor network can reproduce the correlation functions of the quantum field theory. Based on this measure of closeness, I will present rigorous results allowing for explicit error bounds which show that both Matrix product states (MPS) as well as the multiscale renormalization Ansatz (MERA) do approximate conformal field theories. In particular, I will discuss the case of Wess-Zumino-Witten models. based on joint work with Robert Koenig (MPS), Brian Swingle and Michael Walter (MERA)

Tensor networks have primarily, thought not exclusively, been used to the describe quantum states of lattice models where there is some inherent discreteness in the system. This raises issues when trying to describe quantum field theories using tensor networks, since the field theory is continuous (or at least the regulator should not play a central role). I'll present some work in progress studying tensor networks designed to directly compute correlation functions instead of the full state. Here the discreteness arises from our choice of where and how to probe the field theory. This approach is roughly analogous to studying a Legendre transform of the state. I'll discuss the properties of such networks and show how to construct them in some cases of interest, including non-interacting fermion field theories. Partly based on work with Volkher Scholz and Michael Walter.

The exact renormalization group (ERG) for O(N) vector models at large N on flat Euclidean space admits an interpretation as the bulk dynamics of a holographically dual higher spin gauge theory on AdS_{d+1}. The generating functional of correlation functions of single trace operators is reproduced by the on-shell action of this bulk higher spin theory, which is most simply presented in a first-order (phase space) formalism. This structure arises because of an enormous non-local symmetry of free fixed point theories. In this talk, I will review the ERG construction and describe its extension to the RG flow of the wave functionals of arbitrary states of the O(N) vector model at the free fixed point. One finds that the ERG flow of the ground state and a specific class of excited states is implemented by the action of unitary operators which can be chosen to be local. Thus the ERG equations provide a continuum notion of a tensor network. We compare this tensor network with the entanglement renormalization networks, MERA, and cMERA. The ERG tensor network appears to share the general structure of cMERA but differs in important ways.

The first half of the talk will introduce the cMERA, as proposed by Haegeman, Osborne, Verschelde and Verstratete in 2011 [1], as an extension to quantum field theories (QFTs) in the continuum of the MERA tensor network for lattice systems. The second half of the talk will review recent results [2] that show how a cMERA optimized to approximate the ground state of a conformal field theory (CFT) retains all of its spacetime symmetries, although these symmetries are realized quasi-locally. In particular, the conformal data of the original CFT can be extracted from the optimized cMERA. [1] J. Haegeman, T. J. Osborne, H. Verschelde, F. Verstraete, Entanglement renormalization for quantum fields, Phys. Rev. Lett, 110, 100402 (2013), arXiv:1102.5524 [2] Q. Hu, G. Vidal, Spacetime symmetries and conformal data in the continuous multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz, arXiv:1703.04798

We demonstrate that perturbative expansions for quantum many-body systems can be rephrased in terms of tensor networks, thereby providing a natural framework for interpolating perturbative expansions across a quantum phase transition. This approach leads to classes of tensor-network states parameterized by few parameters with a clear physical meaning, while still providing excellent variational energies. We also demonstrate how to construct perturbative expansions of the entanglement Hamiltonian, whose eigenvalues form the entanglement spectrum, and how the tensor-network approach gives rise to order parameters for topological phase transitions.

Recent studies of highly frustrated antiferromagnets (AFMs) have demonstrated the qualitative impact of virtual, longer-range singlet excitations on the effective RVB tunneling parameters of the low energy sector of the problem [1,2]. Here, I will discuss the current state of affairs on the RVB description of the spin-1/2 kagome AFM, and present new results that settle a number of issues in this problem [3].

 

[1] I. Rousochatzakis, Y. Wan, O. Tchernyshyov, and F. Mila, PRB 90,

100406(R) (2014)

[2] A. Ralko and I. Rousochatzakis, PRL 115, 167202 (2015) [3] in preparation.

Since its proposal in the breakthrough paper [F. Verstraete, J.I. Cirac, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 190405(2010)], continuous Matrix Product States (cMPS) have emerged as a powerful tool for obtaining non-perturbative ground state and excited state properties of interacting quantum field theories (QFTs) in (1+1)d. At the heart of the cMPS lies an efficient parametrization of manybody wavefunctionals directly in the continuum, that enables one to obtain ground states of QFTs via imaginary time evolution. In the first part of my talk I will give a general introduction to the cMPS formalism. In the second part, I will then discuss a new method for cMPS optimization, based on energy gradient instead of the usual imaginary time evolution. This new method overcomes several problems associated with imaginary time evolution, and allows to perform calculations at much lower cost / higher accuracy than previously possible.