Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

CQuIC Seminars

Approximating the free energy of quantum Hamiltonians using convex relaxations

Presented by Anirban Chowdhury, IQC Waterloo

In this talk, I will present a new classical algorithm to approximate the free energy of dense, local quantum many-body systems in thermal equilibrium. Our algorithm is based on the variational characterization of the free energy, and uses techniques from semidefinite programming hierarchies. The main idea is to solve a relaxed convex optimization program over sets of reduced density matrices and then "round" these reduced density matrices to a valid quantum state. Our work simultaneously generalizes results in efficient algorithms for the free energy of dense classical Ising models, and product-state approximation algorithms for the ground-state energy of dense quantum Hamiltonians.

3:30 pm, Thursday, February 3, 2022
Zoom,

Disability NoticeIndividuals with disabilities who need an auxiliary aid or service to attend or participate in P&A events should contact the Physics Department (phone: 505-277-2616, email: physics@unm.edu) well in advance to ensure your needs are accomodated. Event handouts can be provided in alternative accessible formats upon request. Please contact the Physics front office if you need written information in an alternative format.

A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php