Tensor-network approach to quantum optical state evolution beyond the Fock basis
Abstract
Understanding the quantum evolution of light in nonlinear media is central to the development of next-generation quantum technologies. Yet modeling these processes remains computationally demanding, as the required resources grow rapidly with photon number and phase-space resolution. Here we introduce a tensor-network approach that efficiently captures the dynamics of nonlinear optical systems in a continuous-variable representation. Using the matrix product state (MPS) formalism, both quantum states and operators are encoded in a highly compressed form, enabling direct numerical integration of the Schr\"odinger equation. We demonstrate the method by simulating degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) and show that it accurately reproduces established theoretical benchmarks - energy conservation, pump depletion, and quadrature squeezing - even in regimes where conventional Fock-basis simulations become infeasible. For high-intensity pump fields (), the MPS representation achieves compression ratios above while preserving physical fidelity. This framework opens a scalable route to modeling multimode quantum light and nonlinear optical phenomena beyond the reach of traditional methods.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.15295,
title = {Tensor-network approach to quantum optical state evolution beyond the Fock basis},
author = {Nikolay Kapridov and Egor Tiunov and Dmitry Chermoshentsev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.15295},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
10 pages, 4 figures