Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / iii / Paper 343 / 4

For the injective translationally invariant case, the fundamental theorem of matrix product states states that two tensors $A=\{A^i\}$ and $B=\{B^i\}$ of the same minimal bond dimension generate the same periodic MPS for every sufficiently large length if and only iffor every physical index $i$, with one invertible matrix $X$. Equality as normalized rays permits the phase $e^{i\theta }$; equality as vectors for all lengths restricts the resulting factor $e^{iN\theta }$ 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 ${\Gamma }_B^L$ defined similarly. Injectivity means that ${\Gamma }_A^L$ and ${\Gamma }_B^L$ have trivial kernels. Equality of all sufficiently long periodic states implies equality of the local support spaces $\mathrm{im}{\Gamma }_A^L=\mathrm{im}{\Gamma }_B^L$, so there is an invertible linear map $F$ 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 $F$ is a unital algebra automorphism of $M_{\chi }(\mathbb{C})$. By every automorphism of a full matrix algebra is inner, $F(X)=X_{0}X{X}_0^{-1}$ for an invertible $X_0$. 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.

The Affleck--Kennedy--Lieb--Tasaki state places two virtual spin-one-half degrees of freedom at every site, puts neighboring virtual spins into singlets, and projects the two virtual spins at each site onto their symmetric spin-one triplet. Its local tensor is equivalently proportional to ${\sigma }_x,{\sigma }_y,{\sigma }_z$ in the spin-one Cartesian basis, and its Affleck--Kennedy--Lieb--Tasaki parent Hamiltonian is

The one-dimensional cluster state is the simultaneous $+1$ eigenstate of the commuting stabilizersOn a periodic chain it is obtained by applying a controlled-$Z$ gate on every neighboring pair of the product state $|+{⟩}^{\otimes N}$.

After suitable blocking, the two states have the same nontrivial projective virtual symmetry of a matrix product state for the protecting group ${\mathbb{Z}}_2\times {\mathbb{Z}}_2$. The two virtual symmetry generators can be represented by anticommuting Pauli matrices, so they realize the nontrivial projective class in group cohomology. Consequently the AKLT and cluster states can be connected by a symmetry-preserving gapped path, or equivalently by a symmetry-preserving finite-depth local circuit: this is the Symmetry-protected equivalence of the Affleck--Kennedy--Lieb--Tasaki state and cluster state.

Both states therefore exhibit one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological order. On an open chain their nontrivial virtual representation produces protected edge degrees of freedom and a characteristic degeneracy in the entanglement spectrum of a matrix product state. They do not have intrinsic topological order: if the protecting symmetry is discarded, either state can be connected to a product state by a finite-depth local circuit.