Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 343 4 a Solution 2026-09-28
For the injective translationally invariant case, the fundamental theorem of matrix product states states that two tensors and of the same minimal bond dimension generate the same periodic MPS for every sufficiently large length if and only iffor every physical index , with one invertible matrix . Equality as normalized rays permits the phase ; equality as vectors for all lengths restricts the resulting factor accordingly. The converse is immediate from cyclicity of the matrix trace:
For the nontrivial direction, block enough sites that both tensors are injective and definewith defined similarly. Injectivity means that and have trivial kernels. Equality of all sufficiently long periodic states implies equality of the local support spaces , so there is an invertible linear map on the virtual matrix algebra satisfying
Compare two adjacent blocks and contract arbitrary environments on their left and right. Because both block maps are injective, equality of the physical contractions forcesThus is a unital algebra automorphism of . By every automorphism of a full matrix algebra is inner, for an invertible . Applying this relation to a block with one physical site exposed givesThis proves the theorem and identifies the freedom as the gauge equivalence of injective matrix product state tensors. For noninjective tensors, their canonical forms first split into injective blocks; equality then permits a permutation of equivalent blocks together with a similarity transformation and phase on each block.