Quantum Loop Topography for Machine Learning.

Despite rapidly growing interest in harnessing machine learning in the study of quantum many-body systems, training neural networks to identify quantum phases is a nontrivial challenge. The key challenge is in efficiently extracting essential information from the many-body Hamiltonian or wave function and turning the information into an image that can be fed into a neural network. When targeting topological phases, this task becomes particularly challenging as topological phases are defined in terms of nonlocal properties. Here, we introduce quantum loop topography (QLT): a procedure of constructing a multidimensional image from the "sample" Hamiltonian or wave function by evaluating two-point operators that form loops at independent Monte Carlo steps. The loop configuration is guided by the characteristic response for defining the phase, which is Hall conductivity for the cases at hand. Feeding QLT to a fully connected neural network with a single hidden layer, we demonstrate that the architecture can be effectively trained to distinguish the Chern insulator and the fractional Chern insulator from trivial insulators with high fidelity. In addition to establishing the first case of obtaining a phase diagram with a topological quantum phase transition with machine learning, the perspective of bridging traditional condensed matter theory with machine learning will be broadly valuable.

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10The system becomes decoupled two-leg ladders at κ = 0.0, which is non-generic for a two-dimensional insulator and we choose to avoid such specialty
11Our alternative proof of Eq. (1) (see Supplemental Material) builds on adiabatic continuity protected by the gap in the spectra without requiring the system be noninteracting
12See Supplemental Material for further discussion and details on the impact of training models and QLT cut-off dc on machine learning phases as well as phase transitions

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