arXiv subjects

Niall F. Robertson

Publications and source records attributed to Niall F. Robertson.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Lindblad Multiproduct Formulas

We introduce Lindblad Multiproduct Formulas: a quantum error mitigation technique that uses two-dimensional tensor networks contracted with loop-corrected belief propagation. The quantities required to implement the error mitigation scheme that are evaluated with tensor networks can be less computationally expensive to calculate than the expectation values themselves, thus allowing for the possibility of applying our method to certain systems for which tensor network methods may struggle to calculate the observable quantities of interest. The workflow incorporates Clifford rescaling techniques and outputs an estimated error bar. We apply our method to a model of two-dimensional discrete time crystals studied previously and implement it on $65$ qubits arranged in a $3\!\times\!3$ heavy-hexagonal topology on the quantum computer ibm_basquecountry. We show that a GPU implementation of the classical part of our workflow achieves a speedup of up to $5.6\times$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Approximate Quantum Compiling for Quantum Simulation: A Tensor Network based approach

We introduce AQCtensor, a novel algorithm to produce short-depth quantum circuits from Matrix Product States (MPS). Our approach is specifically tailored to the preparation of quantum states generated from the time evolution of quantum many-body Hamiltonians. This tailored approach has two clear advantages over previous algorithms that were designed to map a generic MPS to a quantum circuit. First, we optimize all parameters of a parametric circuit at once using Approximate Quantum Compiling (AQC) - this is to be contrasted with other approaches based on locally optimizing a subset of circuit parameters and "sweeping" across the system. We introduce an optimization scheme to avoid the so-called ``orthogonality catastrophe" - i.e. the fact that the fidelity of two arbitrary quantum states decays exponentially with the number of qubits - that would otherwise render a global optimization of the circuit impractical. Second, the depth of our parametric circuit is constant in the number of qubits for a fixed simulation time and fixed error tolerance. This is to be contrasted with the linear circuit Ansatz used in generic algorithms whose depth scales linearly in the number of qubits. For simulation problems on 100 qubits, we show that AQCtensor thus achieves at least an order of magnitude reduction in the depth of the resulting optimized circuit, as compared with the best generic MPS to quantum circuit algorithms. We demonstrate our approach on simulation problems on Heisenberg-like Hamiltonians on up to 100 qubits and find optimized quantum circuits that have significantly reduced depth as compared to standard Trotterized circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Tensor Network enhanced Dynamic Multiproduct Formulas

Tensor networks and quantum computation are two of the most powerful tools for the simulation of quantum many-body systems. Rather than viewing them as competing approaches, here we consider how these two methods can work in tandem. We introduce a novel algorithm that combines tensor networks and quantum computation to produce results that are more accurate than what could be achieved by either method used in isolation. Our algorithm is based on multiproduct formulas (MPF) - a technique that linearly combines Trotter product formulas to reduce algorithmic error. Our algorithm uses a quantum computer to calculate the expectation values and tensor networks to calculate the coefficients used in the linear combination. We present a detailed error analysis of the algorithm and demonstrate the full workflow on a one-dimensional quantum simulation problem on $50$ qubits using two IBM quantum computers: $ibm\_torino$ and $ibm\_kyiv$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Escaping barren plateaus in approximate quantum compiling

Quantum compilation provides a method to translate quantum algorithms at a high level of abstraction into their implementations as quantum circuits on real hardware. One approach to quantum compiling is to design a parameterised circuit and to use techniques from optimisation to find the parameters that minimise the distance between the parameterised circuit and the target circuit of interest. While promising, such an approach typically runs into the obstacle of barren plateaus - i.e. large regions of parameter space in which the gradient vanishes. A number of recent works focusing on so-called quantum assisted quantum compiling have developed new techniques to induce gradients in some particular cases. Here we develop and implement a set of related techniques such that they can be applied to classically assisted quantum compiling. We consider both approximate state preparation and approximate circuit preparation and show that, in both cases, we can significantly improve convergence with the approach developed in this work.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

On quenches to the critical point of the three states Potts model -- Matrix Product State simulations and CFT

Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) have been used extensively to understand the physics of critical lattice models at equilibrium. However, the applicability of CFT calculations to the behavior of the lattice systems in the out-of-equilibrium setting is not entirely understood. In this work, we compare the CFT results of the evolution of the entanglement spectrum after a quantum quench with numerical calculations of the entanglement spectrum of the three-state Potts model using matrix product state simulations. Our results lead us to conjecture that CFT does not describe the entanglement spectrum of the three-state Potts model at long times, contrary to what happens in the Ising model. We thus numerically simulate the out-of-equilibrium behaviour of the Potts model according to the CFT protocol - i.e. by taking a particular product state and "cooling" it, then quenching to the critical point and find that, in this case, the entanglement spectrum is indeed described by the CFT at long times.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Lattice regularisation of a non-compact boundary conformal field theory

Non-compact Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) are central to several aspects of string theory and condensed matter physics. They are characterised, in particular, by the appearance of a continuum of conformal dimensions. Surprisingly, such CFTs have been identified as the continuum limits of lattice models with a finite number of degrees of freedom per site. However, results have so far been restricted to the case of periodic boundary conditions, precluding the exploration via lattice models of aspects of non-compact boundary CFTs and the corresponding D-brane constructions. The present paper follows a series of previous works on a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-staggered XXZ spin chain, whose continuum limit is known to be a non-compact CFT related with the Euclidian black hole sigma model. By using the relationship of this spin chain with an integrable $D_2^2$ vertex model, we here identify integrable boundary conditions that lead to a continuous spectrum of boundary exponents, and thus correspond to non-compact branes. In the context of the Potts model on a square lattice, they correspond to wired boundary conditions at the physical antiferromagnetic critical point. The relations with the boundary parafermion theories are discussed as well. We are also able to identify a boundary renormalisation group flow from the non-compact boundary conditions to the previously studied compact ones.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Integrable boundary conditions in the antiferromagnetic Potts model

We present an exact mapping between the staggered six-vertex model and an integrable model constructed from the twisted affine $D_2^2$ Lie algebra. Using the known relations between the staggered six-vertex model and the antiferromagnetic Potts model, this mapping allows us to study the latter model using tools from integrability. We show that there is a simple interpretation of one of the known K-matrices of the $D_2^2$ model in terms of Temperley-Lieb algebra generators, and use this to present an integrable Hamiltonian that turns out to be in the same universality class as the antiferromagnetic Potts model with free boundary conditions. The intriguing degeneracies in the spectrum observed in related works (arXiv:nlin/0002050 and arXiv:1707.09260) are discussed.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Conformally invariant boundary conditions in the antiferromagnetic Potts model and the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})/U(1)$ sigma model

We initiate a study of the boundary version of the square-lattice $Q$-state Potts antiferromagnet, with $Q \in [0,4]$ real, motivated by the fact that the continuum limit of the corresponding bulk model is a non-compact CFT, closely related with the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ Euclidian black-hole coset model. While various types of conformal boundary conditions (discrete and continuous branes) have been formally identified for the the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_k/U(1)$ coset CFT, we are only able in this work to identify conformal boundary conditions (CBC) leading to a discrete boundary spectrum. The conformal boundary conditions (CBC) we find are of two types. The first is free boundary Potts spins, for which we confirm an old conjecture for the generating functions of conformal levels, and show them to be related to characters in a non-linear deformation of the $W_\infty$ algebra. The second type of CBC - which corresponds to restricting the values of the Potts spins to a subset of size $Q_1$, or its complement of size $Q-Q_1$, at alternating sites along the boundary - is new, and turns out to be conformal in the antiferromagnetic case only. Using algebraic and numerical techniques, we show that the corresponding spectrum generating functions produce all the characters of discrete representations for the coset CFT. The normalizability bounds of the associated discrete states in the coset CFT are found to have a simple interpretation in terms of boundary phase transitions in the lattice model. For $\sqrt{Q} = 2 \cos \fracπ{k}$, with $k \ge 3$ integer, we show also how our boundary conditions can be reformulated in terms of a RSOS height model. The spectrum generating functions are then identified with string functions of the compact $SU(2)_{k-2} / U(1)$ parafermion theory (with symmetry $Z_{k-2}$). The new alt conditions are needed to cover all the string functions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗