Contracting Tensor Networks with Generalized Belief Propagation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Tindall, Joseph, Sommers, Grace M., Kappen, Hilbert
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Tindall, Joseph
Sommers, Grace M.
Kappen, Hilbert
author_facet Tindall, Joseph
Sommers, Grace M.
Kappen, Hilbert
contents Recent years have seen a growing interest in the use of belief propagation - an algorithm originally introduced for performing statistical inference on graphical models - for approximate, but highly efficient, tensor network contraction. Here, we detail how to apply generalized belief propagation (GBP) - where messages are passed within a hierarchy of overlapping regions of the tensor network - to approximately contract tensor networks and obtain accurate results. The original belief propagation algorithm is a corner case of this approach, corresponding to a particularly simple choice of regions of the tensor network. We implement the GBP algorithm for a number of different region choices on a range of two- and three-dimensional, infinite and finite tensor networks, solving the corresponding fixed point equations both numerically and, in certain tractable cases, analytically. Our examples include calculating the partition function of the fully frustrated Ising model, computing the ground state degeneracy of three-dimensional ice models, measuring observables on the deformed AKLT quantum state and evaluating the norm of randomly generated tensor network states.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_24760
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Contracting Tensor Networks with Generalized Belief Propagation
Tindall, Joseph
Sommers, Grace M.
Kappen, Hilbert
Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Computational Physics
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the use of belief propagation - an algorithm originally introduced for performing statistical inference on graphical models - for approximate, but highly efficient, tensor network contraction. Here, we detail how to apply generalized belief propagation (GBP) - where messages are passed within a hierarchy of overlapping regions of the tensor network - to approximately contract tensor networks and obtain accurate results. The original belief propagation algorithm is a corner case of this approach, corresponding to a particularly simple choice of regions of the tensor network. We implement the GBP algorithm for a number of different region choices on a range of two- and three-dimensional, infinite and finite tensor networks, solving the corresponding fixed point equations both numerically and, in certain tractable cases, analytically. Our examples include calculating the partition function of the fully frustrated Ising model, computing the ground state degeneracy of three-dimensional ice models, measuring observables on the deformed AKLT quantum state and evaluating the norm of randomly generated tensor network states.
title Contracting Tensor Networks with Generalized Belief Propagation
topic Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.24760