Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Open Access

Reducing the computational cost scaling of tensor network algorithms via field-programmable gate array parallelism

Songtai Lv1, Yang Liang2, Rui Zhu3,4, Qibin Zheng2,*, and Haiyuan Zou1,†

  • *Contact author: qbzheng@usst.edu.cn
  • †Contact author:  hyzou@phy.ecnu.edu.cn

APS Open Sci. 1, 000064 – Published 16 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ktzw-t6fx

Abstract

Improving the computational efficiency of quantum many-body calculations from a hardware perspective remains a critical challenge. Although field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have recently been exploited to improve the computational scaling of algorithms such as Monte Carlo methods, their application to tensor network algorithms is still at an early stage. In this work, we propose a fine-grained parallel tensor network design based on FPGAs to substantially enhance the computational efficiency of two representative tensor network algorithms: the infinite time-evolving block decimation (iTEBD) and the higher-order tensor renormalization group (HOTRG). By employing a quad-tile partitioning strategy to decompose tensor elements and map them onto hardware circuits, our approach effectively translates algorithmic computational complexity into scalable hardware resource utilization, enabling an extremely high degree of parallelism on FPGAs. Compared with conventional CPU-based implementations, our scheme exhibits superior scalability in computation time, reducing the bond-dimension scaling of the computational cost from O(Db3) to O(Db) for iTEBD and from O(Db6) to O(Db2) for HOTRG. This work provides a theoretical foundation for future hardware implementations of large-scale tensor network computations.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (56)

  1. F. Verstraete and J. I. Cirac, Renormalization algorithms for quantum-many body systems in two and higher dimensions, arXiv:cond-mat/0407066.
  2. J. Jordan, R. Orús, G. Vidal, F. Verstraete, and J. I. Cirac, Classical simulation of infinite-size quantum lattice systems in two spatial dimensions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 250602 (2008).
  3. G. Vidal, Classical simulation of infinite-size quantum lattice systems in one spatial dimension, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 070201 (2007).
  4. G. Vidal, Entanglement renormalization, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 220405 (2007).
  5. Z.-C. Gu, M. Levin, and X.-G. Wen, Tensor-entanglement renormalization group approach as a unified method for symmetry breaking and topological phase transitions, Phys. Rev. B 78, 205116 (2008).
  6. G. Evenbly and G. Vidal, Tensor network renormalization, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 180405 (2015).
  7. R. Orús, A practical introduction to tensor networks: Matrix product states and projected entangled pair states, Ann. Phys. 349, 117 (2014).
  8. J. I. Cirac, D. Pérez-García, N. Schuch, and F. Verstraete, Matrix product states and projected entangled pair states: Concepts, symmetries, theorems, Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 045003 (2021).
  9. T. Xiang, Density Matrix and Tensor Network Renormalization (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2023).
  10. S. R. White, Density matrix formulation for quantum renormalization groups, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2863 (1992).
  11. U. Schollwöck, The density-matrix renormalization group in the age of matrix product states, Ann. Phys. 326, 96 (2011).
  12. M. Levin and C. P. Nave, Tensor renormalization group approach to two-dimensional classical lattice models, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 120601 (2007).
  13. Z. Y. Xie, J. Chen, M. P. Qin, J. W. Zhu, L. P. Yang, and T. Xiang, Coarse-graining renormalization by higher-order singular value decomposition, Phys. Rev. B 86, 045139 (2012).
  14. Y. Liu, S. Lv, Y. Yang, and H. Zou, Signatures of quantum criticality in the complex inverse temperature plane, Chin. Phys. Lett. 40, 050502 (2023).
  15. Y. Liu, S. Lv, Y. Meng, Z. Tan, E. Zhao, and H. Zou, Exact Fisher zeros and thermofield dynamics across a quantum critical point, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 043139 (2024).
  16. Y. Liu, E. Zhao, and H. Zou, From complexification to self-similarity: New aspects of quantum criticality, Chin. Phys. Lett. 41, 100501 (2024).
  17. Y. Meng, S. Lv, Y. Liu, Z. Tan, E. Zhao, and H. Zou, Detecting many-body scars from Fisher zeros, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 070402 (2025).
  18. Y. Liu, Y. Meurice, M. P. Qin, J. Unmuth-Yockey, T. Xiang, Z. Y. Xie, J. F. Yu, and H. Zou, Exact blocking formulas for spin and gauge models, Phys. Rev. D 88, 056005 (2013).
  19. M. Carmen Bañuls and K. Cichy, Review on novel methods for lattice gauge theories, Rep. Prog. Phys. 83, 024401 (2020).
  20. Y. Meurice, R. Sakai, and J. Unmuth-Yockey, Tensor lattice field theory for renormalization and quantum computing, Rev. Mod. Phys. 94, 025005 (2022).
  21. Y. Wu and W.-Y. Liu, Accurate gauge-invariant tensor-network simulations for Abelian lattice gauge theory in (2+1)D: Ground-state and real-time dynamics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 130401 (2025).
  22. D. Adachi, T. Okubo, and S. Todo, Anisotropic tensor renormalization group, Phys. Rev. B 102, 054432 (2020).
  23. Y. Sugimoto, S. Akiyama, and Y. Kuramashi, Phase structure of (3+1)-dimensional dense two-color QCD at t=0 in the strong coupling limit with the tensor renormalization group, Phys. Rev. D 113, 034503 (2026).
  24. W.-M. W. Hwu, D. B. Kirk, and I. E. Hajj, Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach (Morgan Kaufmann, London, England, 2022), 4th ed., p. 580.
  25. J. Backus, Can programming be liberated from the von Neumann style?: A functional style and its algebra of programs, Commun. ACM 21, 613 (1978).
  26. J. L. Hennessy, D. A. Patterson, and C. Kozyrakis, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (Morgan Kaufmann, Oxford, England, 2025), 7th ed., p. 936.
  27. A. Morningstar, M. Hauru, J. Beall, M. Ganahl, A. G. Lewis, V. Khemani, and G. Vidal, Simulation of quantum many-body dynamics with tensor processing units: Floquet prethermalization, PRX Quantum 3, 020331 (2022).
  28. M. Ganahl, J. Beall, M. Hauru, A. G. Lewis, T. Wojno, J. H. Yoo, Y. Zou, and G. Vidal, Density matrix renormalization group with tensor processing units, PRX Quantum 4, 010317 (2023).
  29. S. Mittal, A survey of FPGA-based accelerators for convolutional neural networks, Neural Comput. Appl. 32, 1109 (2020).
  30. L. Zhang, X. Q. Chen, S. Liu, Q. Zhang, J. Zhao, J. Y. Dai, G. D. Bai, X. Wan, Q. Cheng, G. Castaldi, V. Galdi, and T. J. Cui, Space-time-coding digital metasurfaces, Nat. Commun. 9, 4334 (2018).
  31. J. M. Rodríguez-Borbón, A. Kalantar, S. S. R. K. C. Yamijala, M. B. Oviedo, W. Najjar, and B. M. Wong, Field programmable gate arrays for enhancing the speed and energy efficiency of quantum dynamics simulations, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 16, 2085 (2020).
  32. C.-F. Shang, Y.-F. Wang, M.-T. Zhao, Q.-X. Fan, S. Zhao, Y. Qian, S.-J. Xu, Y. Mu, J. Hao, and J.-L. Du, Real-time analysis of large-scale neuronal imaging enables closed-loop investigation of neural dynamics, Nat. Neurosci. 27, 1014 (2024).
  33. H. Lv, N. Xie, M. Li, M. Dong, C. Sun, Q. Zhang, L. Zhao, J. Li, X. Zuo, H. Chen, F. Wang, and C. Fan, DNA-based programmable gate arrays for general-purpose DNA computing, Nature (London) 622, 292 (2023).
  34. A. Gothandaraman, G. D. Peterson, G. L. Warren, R. J. Hinde, and R. J. Harrison, FPGA acceleration of a quantum Monte Carlo application, Parallel Comput. 34, 278 (2008).
  35. S. Cardamone, J. R. R. Kimmitt, H. G. A. Burton, T. J. Todman, S. Li, W. Luk, and A. J. W. Thom, Field‐programmable gate arrays and quantum Monte Carlo: Power efficient coprocessing for scalable high‐performance computing, Int. J. Quantum Chem. 119, e25853 (2019).
  36. M. Baity-Jesi, R. Baños, A. Cruz, L. Fernandez, J. Gil-Narvion, A. Gordillo-Guerrero, D. Iñiguez, A. Maiorano, F. Mantovani, E. Marinari, et al., The Janus project: Boosting spin-glass simulations using FPGAs, IFAC Proc. Vol. 46, 227 (2013).
  37. Q. Zhai, I. Paga, M. Baity-Jesi, E. Calore, A. Cruz, L. A. Fernandez, J. M. Gil-Narvion, I. Gonzalez-Adalid Pemartin, A. Gordillo-Guerrero, D. Iñiguez, et al., Scaling law describes the spin-glass response in theory, experiments, and simulations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 237202 (2020).
  38. S. Chowdhury, K. Y. Camsari, and S. Datta, Accelerated quantum Monte Carlo with probabilistic computers, Commun. Phys. 6, 85 (2023).
  39. S. Niazi, S. Chowdhury, N. A. Aadit, M. Mohseni, Y. Qin, and K. Y. Camsari, Training deep Boltzmann networks with sparse Ising machines, Nat. Electron. 7, 610 (2024).
  40. N. S. Singh, K. Kobayashi, Q. Cao, K. Selcuk, T. Hu, S. Niazi, N. A. Aadit, S. Kanai, H. Ohno, S. Fukami, and K. Y. Camsari, CMOS plus stochastic nanomagnets enabling heterogeneous computers for probabilistic inference and learning, Nat. Commun. 15, 2685 (2024).
  41. S. Nikhar, S. Kannan, N. A. Aadit, S. Chowdhury, and K. Y. Camsari, All-to-all reconfigurability with sparse and higher-order Ising machines, Nat. Commun. 15, 8977 (2024).
  42. S. Lv, Y. Liang, Y. Meng, X. Yao, J. Xu, Y. Liu, Q. Zheng, and H. Zou, Many-body computing on field programmable gate arrays, Commun. Phys. 8, 117 (2025).
  43. Y. Liang, S. Lv, Z. Tang, L. Zhou, Q. Zheng, and H. Zou, FPGA acceleration of tensor network computing for quantum spin models, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 96, 013903 (2025).
  44. R. P. Brent, F. T. Luk, and C. Van Loan, Computation of the generalized singular value decomposition using mesh-connected processors, Proc. SPIE 431, 66 (1983).
  45. F. T. Luk, A parallel method for computing the generalized singular value decomposition, J. Parallel Distrib. Comput. 2, 250 (1985).
  46. W.-Y. Liu, S.-S. Gong, Y.-B. Li, D. Poilblanc, W.-Q. Chen, and Z.-C. Gu, Gapless quantum spin liquid and global phase diagram of the spin-1/2 J1−J2 square antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model, Sci. Bull. 67, 1034 (2022).
  47. H. Zou and W. Wang, Gapless spin liquid and nonlocal corner excitation in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on fractal, Chin. Phys. Lett. 40, 057501 (2023).
  48. H. Zou, F. Yang, and W. Ku, Nearly degenerate ground states of a checkerboard antiferromagnet and their bosonic interpretation, Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 67, 217211 (2024).
  49. X. Chen, Z.-C. Gu, Z.-X. Liu, and X.-G. Wen, Symmetry protected topological orders and the group cohomology of their symmetry group, Phys. Rev. B 87, 155114 (2013).
  50. Q. Zheng, X. Li, and H. Zou, Symmetry-protected topological phase transitions and robust chiral order on a tunable zigzag lattice, Phys. Rev. B 101, 165131 (2020).
  51. G. Hager, E. Jeckelmann, H. Fehske, and G. Wellein, Parallelization strategies for density matrix renormalization group algorithms on shared-memory systems, J. Comput. Phys. 194, 795 (2004).
  52. E. M. Stoudenmire and S. R. White, Real-space parallel density matrix renormalization group, Phys. Rev. B 87, 155137 (2013).
  53. R. Levy, E. Solomonik, and B. K. Clark, Distributed-memory DMRG via sparse and dense parallel tensor contractions, in Proceedings of the SC20: International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, Atlanta, GA, USA (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2020), pp. 1–14.
  54. Y. Motoyama, T. Okubo, K. Yoshimi, S. Morita, T. Kato, and N. Kawashima, TeNeS: Tensor network solver for quantum lattice systems, Comput. Phys. Commun. 279, 108437 (2022).
  55. C. Huang, F. Zhang, M. Newman, X. Ni, D. Ding, J. Cai, X. Gao, T. Wang, F. Wu, G. Zhang, et al., Efficient parallelization of tensor network contraction for simulating quantum computation, Nat. Comput. Sci. 1, 578 (2021).
  56. S. Lv, Y. Liang, R. Zhu, Q. Zheng, and H. Zou, Figure data for “Reducing the computational cost scaling of tensor network algorithms via field programmable gate array parallelism”, Zenodo, 2026, http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20761535.

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation