Infinite matrix product states versus infinite projected entangled-pair states on the cylinder: A comparative study

In spite of their intrinsic one-dimensional nature, matrix product states have been systematically used to obtain remarkably accurate results for two-dimensional systems. Motivated by basic entropic arguments favoring projected entangled-pair states as the method of choice, we assess the relative performance of infinite matrix product states and infinite projected entangled-pair states on cylindrical geometries. By considering the Heisenberg and half-filled Hubbard models on the square lattice as our benchmark cases, we evaluate their variational energies as a function of both bond dimension and cylinder width. In both examples, we find crossovers at moderate cylinder widths, i.e., for the largest bond dimensions considered, we find an improvement on the variational energies for the Heisenberg model by using projected entangled-pair states at a width of about eleven sites, whereas for the half-filled Hubbard model, this crossover occurs at about seven sites.