Comment on "Spin-1/2 Kagome Heisenberg Antiferromagnet: Machine Learning Discovery of the Spinon Pair-Density-Wave Ground State"
Authors: Helia Kamal, Dominik Kufel, DinhDuy Vu, Chris R. Laumann, Norman Y. Yao
Organizations: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA · Harvard Quantum Initiative, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA · Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
A recent article [Phys. Rev. X 15, 011047 (2025)] utilizes group-equivariant convolutional neural networks to study the ground state of the kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet. On the largest finite-size cluster studied to date (N=108), the authors report variational energies significantly lower than other numerical methods, including state-of-the-art density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations. In contrast to previous results suggesting a possible spin-liquid ground state, the authors observe a spinon pair-density-wave ground state. We find that: (i) the reported low energies are artifacts of broken ergodicity in the Metropolis--Hastings sampling, since the single-spin-flip update rule utilized by the authors effectively freezes the Markov chains; and (ii) when ergodic sampling is enforced via spin-exchange updates, the neural network converges to energies significantly higher than existing DMRG results, calling the paper's claims into question.
Recent theoretical progress has established conditions under which machine learning models can efficiently predict ground-state properties of gapped local Hamiltonians when trained on quantum-generated data. Previous experimental demonstrations in this paradigm, however, have largely been limited to small systems or highly structured states, due to the difficulty of preparing many-body ground states on quantum processors. In this work, we demonstrate learning from experimental quantum data generated from approximate ground states of the two-dimensional Heisenberg XXZ model with system sizes up to 115 qubits. We construct a dataset of single-site expectation values, two-point correlations, and 12-body loop correlations across the antiferromagnetic phase. We then train neural networks on this data and show that they can accurately predict spatially resolved observables for previously unseen Hamiltonian parameters, both within the training distribution and in an out-of-distribution regime approaching the phase boundary. Our results demonstrate the practical realization of learning from quantum data for an interacting two-dimensional many-body system at scale, motivating a path toward regimes where quantum processors could provide training data beyond the reach of classical approximation methods.
Computational discovery of magnetic materials remains challenging because magnetism arises from the competition between kinetic energy and Coulomb interaction that is often beyond the reach of standard electronic-structure methods. Here we tackle this challenge by directly solving the many-electron Schrödinger equation with neural-network variational Monte Carlo, which provides a highly expressive variational wavefunction for strongly correlated systems. Applying this technique to transition metal dichalcogenide moiré semicondutors, we predict itinerant ferromagnetism in WSe2/WS2 and an antiferromagnetic insulator in twisted Γ-valley homobilayer, using the same neural network without any physics input beyond the microscopic Hamiltonian. Crucially, both types of magnetic states are obtained from a single calculation within the Sz=0 sector, removing the need to compute and compare multiple Sz sectors. This significantly reduces computational cost and paves the way for faster and more reliable magnetic material design.
We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of the 2D spin-imbalanced Fermi gas with short-ranged attractive interactions using the recently developed neural network variational Monte Carlo method with the AGPs FermiNet Ansatz. The Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase is observed in the weakly interacting BCS limit and a polarised superfluid is seen in the strongly interacting BEC limit. When the interactions are strong, the minority-spin momentum density is reduced almost to zero in the momentum-space region occupied by the unpaired majority-spin electrons. When the interactions are very strong, phase separation occurs, with regions containing bosonic pairs and unpaired regions occupied by the remaining majority-spin particles. In addition, we observe translational symmetry breaking at intermediate interaction strengths, where the system forms an exotic crystal of Cooper pairs in a Fermi fluid of unpaired majority-spin particles. We provide a possible explanation for the formation of the crystalline phase, explain the origins of the k-space momentum-density hole when the pairs are tightly bound, and discuss how our approach opens new directions for future work.
Wan Tong Lou, Gino Cassella, Andres Perez Fadon +5