Decorated tensor network renormalization for lattice gauge theories and spin foam models

Abstract: Tensor network techniques have proved to be powerful tools that can be employed to explore the large scale dynamics of lattice systems. Nonetheless, the redundancy of degrees of freedom in lattice gauge theories (and related models) poses a challenge for standard tensor network algorithms. We accommodate for such systems by introducing an additional structure decorating the tensor network. This allows to explicitly preserve the gauge symmetry of the system under coarse graining and straightforwardly interpret the fixed point tensors. We propose and test (for models with finite Abelian groups) a coarse graining algorithm for lattice gauge theories based on decorated tensor networks. We also point out that decorated tensor networks are applicable to other models as well, where they provide the advantage to give immediate access to certain expectation values and correlation functions.