Computing moment polytopes -- with a focus on tensors, entanglement and matrix multiplication

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Berg, Maxim van den, Christandl, Matthias, Lysikov, Vladimir, Nieuwboer, Harold, Walter, Michael, Zuiddam, Jeroen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915542369042432
author Berg, Maxim van den
Christandl, Matthias
Lysikov, Vladimir
Nieuwboer, Harold
Walter, Michael
Zuiddam, Jeroen
author_facet Berg, Maxim van den
Christandl, Matthias
Lysikov, Vladimir
Nieuwboer, Harold
Walter, Michael
Zuiddam, Jeroen
contents Tensors are fundamental in mathematics, computer science, and physics. Their study through algebraic geometry and representation theory has proved very fruitful in the context of algebraic complexity theory and quantum information. In particular, moment polytopes have been understood to play a key role. In quantum information, moment polytopes (also known as entanglement polytopes) provide a framework for the single-particle quantum marginal problem and offer a geometric characterization of entanglement. In algebraic complexity, they underpin quantum functionals that capture asymptotic tensor relations. More recently, moment polytopes have also become foundational to the emerging field of scaling algorithms in computer science and optimization. Despite their fundamental role and interest from many angles, much is still unknown about these polytopes, and in particular for tensors beyond $\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2$ and $\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2$ only sporadically have they been computed. We give a new algorithm for computing moment polytopes of tensors (and in fact moment polytopes for the general class of reductive algebraic groups) based on a mathematical description by Franz (J. Lie Theory 2002). This algorithm enables us to compute moment polytopes of tensors of dimension an order of magnitude larger than previous methods, allowing us to compute with certainty, for the first time, all moment polytopes of tensors in $\mathbb{C}^3\otimes\mathbb{C}^3\otimes\mathbb{C}^3$, and with high probability those in $\mathbb{C}^4\otimes\mathbb{C}^4\otimes\mathbb{C}^4$ (which includes the $2\times 2$ matrix multiplication tensor). We discuss how these explicit moment polytopes have led to several new theoretical directions and results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_08336
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Computing moment polytopes -- with a focus on tensors, entanglement and matrix multiplication
Berg, Maxim van den
Christandl, Matthias
Lysikov, Vladimir
Nieuwboer, Harold
Walter, Michael
Zuiddam, Jeroen
Representation Theory
Computational Complexity
Symbolic Computation
Algebraic Geometry
Quantum Physics
20G05, 15A69, 14L24, 68W30
Tensors are fundamental in mathematics, computer science, and physics. Their study through algebraic geometry and representation theory has proved very fruitful in the context of algebraic complexity theory and quantum information. In particular, moment polytopes have been understood to play a key role. In quantum information, moment polytopes (also known as entanglement polytopes) provide a framework for the single-particle quantum marginal problem and offer a geometric characterization of entanglement. In algebraic complexity, they underpin quantum functionals that capture asymptotic tensor relations. More recently, moment polytopes have also become foundational to the emerging field of scaling algorithms in computer science and optimization. Despite their fundamental role and interest from many angles, much is still unknown about these polytopes, and in particular for tensors beyond $\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2$ and $\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2\otimes\mathbb{C}^2$ only sporadically have they been computed. We give a new algorithm for computing moment polytopes of tensors (and in fact moment polytopes for the general class of reductive algebraic groups) based on a mathematical description by Franz (J. Lie Theory 2002). This algorithm enables us to compute moment polytopes of tensors of dimension an order of magnitude larger than previous methods, allowing us to compute with certainty, for the first time, all moment polytopes of tensors in $\mathbb{C}^3\otimes\mathbb{C}^3\otimes\mathbb{C}^3$, and with high probability those in $\mathbb{C}^4\otimes\mathbb{C}^4\otimes\mathbb{C}^4$ (which includes the $2\times 2$ matrix multiplication tensor). We discuss how these explicit moment polytopes have led to several new theoretical directions and results.
title Computing moment polytopes -- with a focus on tensors, entanglement and matrix multiplication
topic Representation Theory
Computational Complexity
Symbolic Computation
Algebraic Geometry
Quantum Physics
20G05, 15A69, 14L24, 68W30
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.08336