Finding the Dynamics of an Integrable Quantum Many-Body System via Machine Learning

Abstract

We study the dynamics of the Gaudin magnet ("central-spin model") using machine-learning methods. This model is of practical importance, e.g., for studying non-Markovian decoherence dynamics of a central spin interacting with a large bath of environmental spins and for studies of nonequilibrium superconductivity. The Gaudin magnet is also integrable, admitting many conserved quantities: For $N$ spins, the model Hamiltonian can be written as the sum of $N$ independent commuting operators. Despite this high degree of symmetry, a general closed-form analytic solution for the dynamics of this many-body problem remains elusive. Machine-learning methods may be well suited to exploiting the high degree of symmetry in integrable problems, even when an explicit analytic solution is not obvious. Motivated in part by this intuition, we use a neural-network representation (restricted Boltzmann machine) for each variational eigenstate of the model Hamiltonian. We then obtain accurate representations of the ground state and of the low-lying excited states of the Gaudin-magnet Hamiltonian through a variational Monte Carlo calculation. From the low-lying eigenstates, we find the non-perturbative dynamic transverse spin susceptibility, describing the linear response of a central spin to a time-varying transverse magnetic field in the presence of a spin bath. Having an efficient description of this susceptibility opens the door to improved characterization and quantum control procedures for qubits interacting with an environment of quantum two-level systems. These systems include electron-spin and hole-spin qubits interacting with environmental nuclear spins via hyperfine interactions or qubits with charge or flux degrees of freedom interacting with coherent charge or paramagnetic impurities.