A tensor network annealing algorithm for two-dimensional thermal states

Understand

Tensor network methods have become a powerful class of tools to capture strongly correlated matter, but methods to capture the experimentally ubiquitous family of models at finite temperature beyond one spatial dimension are largely lacking.

• We introduce a tensor network algorithm able to simulate thermal states of two-dimensional quantum lattice systems in the thermodynamic limit.
• The method develops instances of projected entangled pair states and projected entangled pair operators for this purpose.
• It is the key feature of this algorithm to resemble the cooling down of the system from an infinite temperature state until it reaches the desired finite-temperature regime.