Tensor Network Implementation of Bulk Entanglement Spectrum

Understand

Many topologically nontrivial states of matter possess gapless degrees of freedom on the boundary, and when these boundary states delocalize into the bulk, a phase transition occurs and the system becomes topologically trivial.

• We show that tensor networks provide a natural framework for analyzing such topological phase transitions in terms of the boundary degrees of freedom which mediate it.
• To do so, we make use of a correspondence between a topologically nontrivial ground state and its phase transition to a trivial phase established in [1].
• This involved computing the bulk entanglement spectrum (BES) of the ground state, upon tracing out an extensive subsystem.