Conditional Euclidean-Hamiltonian reductions for sign-problem toy models

Abstract

Euclidean Monte Carlo methods are effective when the path-integral weight is real and nonnegative, but finite-density fermion systems often produce sign-changing or complex scalar weights after the fermionic sector is traced out. Hamiltonian formulations avoid this complex-weight sampling problem but face rapid Hilbert-space growth. This paper studies a conditional Euclidean-Hamiltonian (CEH) reduction that combines these two descriptions. The calculation is organized around a Monte Carlo-tractable reference problem and a residual active sector. Instead of tracing the active sector into a determinant or scalar weight, CEH keeps it operator-valued and uses the reference calculation to determine projected correlation or transfer matrices. These matrices define a finite effective Hamiltonian, with the remaining finite-density dependence introduced after projection. At finite rank, the result is an effective model whose accuracy must be tested through basis enlargement, metric conditioning, stochastic matrix-element errors, and number-sector diagnostics. The construction is examined in three finite benchmarks. A two-channel oscillator tests conditional basis compression; a positive-measure stochastic calculation tests correlation-matrix harvesting and GEVP extraction, including a comparison with a PDMS-style estimator; and a four-site Hubbard ring combines a finite-budget determinant-sign stress test with finite-density continuation in non-target active spaces. The benchmarks support the proposed trade from scalar sign reweighting to a monitored active-space approximation in structured finite models, but they do not provide an end-to-end stochastic CEH treatment of the Hubbard sign problem or establish favorable scaling. Usefulness requires both low-rank approximability and efficient extraction of the required projected matrix data.