Efficient descriptions of many-body quantum systems

Abstract:
We investigate new methods to describe many-body quantum systems based on quantum information ideas. In particular, we have found several subfamilies of Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS) which offer accurate descriptions of low temperature states of local Hamiltonians in 2 and higher dimensions. In this talk, we will introduce those families, give their mathematical properties, and present some numerical results.

About the speaker:
J. Ignacio Cirac, Director of the Theory Division of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany, is a leading quantum information theorist and one of the most cited physicists in the world.

He has recently received the 2009 Carl Zeiss Research Award, the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics His research aims to characterize quantum phenomena, and to develop a new theory of information based on quantum mechanics, work which may ultimately contribute to the development of quantum computers and to solve open problems in many body physics.