Renormalization-group-inspired neural networks for computing topological invariants

Abstract

We show that artificial neural networks (ANNs) can, to high accuracy, determine the topological invariant of a disordered system given its two-dimensional real-space Hamiltonian. Furthermore, we describe a "renormalization-group" (RG) network, an ANN which converts a Hamiltonian on a large lattice to another on a small lattice while preserving the invariant. By iteratively applying the RG network to a "base" network that computes the Chern number of a small lattice of set size, we are able to process larger lattices without re-training the system. We therefore show that it is possible to compute real-space topological invariants for systems larger than those on which the network was trained. This opens the door for computation times significantly faster and more scalable than previous methods.