Research: Tensor network representations of parton wave functions

The quantum world of individual particles is already bizarre. If many particles interact with each other, the complexity increases exponentially with the number of particles. Ingenious methods such as parton wave functions and tensor network states have been devised to capture an essential small corner in the exponentially large Hilbert space. Partons are “slave” particles liberated from the physical constituents and they behave almost freely. Tensors serve as the DNA of quantum systems and form networks to describe physical states. This study reports an important progress in bringing parton and tensor together. The happy marriage produces excellent offspring because various properties of parton wave functions, which are very difficult or nearly impossible to compute using traditional methods, can now be obtained relatively easily. It becomes possible to check various proposals regarding the nature of high temperature superconductors, quantum spin liquids, and fractional quantum Hall states. The power of this new method has been demonstrated using two examples, and more interesting applications are underway.

Y.-H. Wu, L. Wang, H.-H. Tu,
Tensor Network Representations of Parton Wave Functions,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 246401 (2020)