Sample complexity of matrix product states at finite temperature

Abstract

For quantum many-body systems in one dimension, computational complexity theory reveals that the evaluation of ground-state energy remains elusive on quantum computers, contrasting the existence of a classical algorithm for temperatures higher than the inverse logarithm of the system size. This highlights a qualitative difference between low- and high-temperature states in terms of computational complexity. Here, we describe finite-temperature states using the matrix product state formalism. Within the framework of random samplings, we derive an analytical formula for the required number of samples, which provides both quantitative and qualitative measures of computational complexity. At high and low temperatures, its scaling behavior with system size is linear and quadratic, respectively, demonstrating a distinct crossover between these numerically difficult regimes of quantitative difference.