On the ubiquity of matrix-product states in one-dimensional stochastic processes with boundary interactions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that matrix-product states are a universal representation for the stationary states of one-dimensional stochastic processes with boundary interactions, extending previous results to models with finite-range interactions.

Contribution

It generalizes the known matrix-product state representation of stationary states to stochastic Hamiltonians with arbitrary finite-range interactions.

Findings

Exact solutions for particle-hopping models with three-site bulk interactions.

Application to traffic flow cellular automata models.

Representation of stationary states as matrix-product states for these models.

Abstract

Recently it has been shown that the zero-energy eigenstate -- corresponding to the stationary state -- of a stochastic Hamiltonian with nearest-neighbour interaction in the bulk and single-site boundary terms, can always be written in the form of a so-called matrix-product state. We generalize this result to stochastic Hamiltonians with arbitrary, but finite, interaction range. As an application two different particle-hopping models with three-site bulk interaction are studied. For these models which can be interpreted as cellular automata for traffic flow, we present exact solutions for periodic boundary conditions and some suitably chosen boundary interactions.