• Accepted Paper

Tensor network representations for intrinsically mixed-state topological orders

Bader Aldossari, Sergey Blinov, and Zhu-Xi Luo

PRX Quantum - Accepted 3 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4zl5-2gw8

Abstract

Tensor networks are an efficient platform for representing topological states of matter as well as computing both physical observables and information-theoretic quantities. We present a general protocol to construct tensor network representations for intrinsically mixed-state topological phases. Such phases naturally emerge in noisy long-range entangled quantum systems, and exhibit nontrivial topological phenomena without pure-state counterparts. The method exploits the isomorphism between anyon decoherence in the physical Hilbert space and anyon condensation in the corresponding Choi space. The protocol is applicable to a broad class of systems arising from decoherence of pure-state topological phases, where the incoherent noise creates excitations in the Choi space that have trivial monodromy with all excitations. Representative examples at renormalization group fixed points include maeb decoherence in the $\Z_N$ toric code, decohered non-Abelian quantum double of S3 as well as pure Z/X decoherence of arbitrary CSS codes. Another notable example is that of the mixed-state chiral semion, whose tensor network representation has no pure-state analogue. We then generalize the formalism beyond RG fixed points and, as an example, examine the decoherence transition in a ℤ3 toric code channel that suffers from sign problem when mapped to a statistical mechanical model. Together, these results establish tensor networks as a natural platform for analyzing noisy intrinsically mixed-state topological matter.

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