Matrix product state approach for a quantum system at finite temperatures using random phases and Trotter gates

Abstract: We develop a numerical method based on matrix product states for simulating quantum many-body systems at finite temperatures without importance sampling and evaluate its performance in spin 1/2 systems. Our method is an extension of the random phase product state (RPPS) approach introduced recently [T. Iitaka, arXiv:2006.14459]. We show that the original RPPS approach often gives unphysical values for thermodynamic quantities even in the Heisenberg chain. We find that by adding the operation of Trotter gates to the RPPS, the sampling efficiency of the approach significantly increases and its results are consistent with those of the purification approach. We also apply our method to a frustrated spin 1/2 system to exemplify that it can simulate a system in which the purification approach fails.