Machine-learning detection of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition and the second-order phase transition in the XXZ models

Abstract: We propose two machine-learning methods based on neural networks, which we respectively call the phase-classification method and the temperature-identification method, for detecting different types of phase transitions in the XXZ models without prior knowledge of their critical temperatures. The XXZ models have exchange couplings which are anisotropic in the spin space where the strength is represented by a parameter $\Delta(>0)$. The models exhibit the second-order phase transition when $\Delta>1$, whereas the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition when $\Delta<1$. In the phase-classification method, the neural network is trained using spin or vortex configurations of well-known classical spin models other than the XXZ models, e.g., the Ising models and the XY models, to classify those of the XXZ models to corresponding phases. We demonstrate that the trained neural network successfully detects the phase transitions for both $\Delta>1$ and $\Delta<1$, and the evaluated critical temperatures coincide well with those evaluated by conventional numerical calculations. In the temperature-identification method, on the other hand, the neural network is trained so as to identify temperatures at which the input spin or vortex configurations are generated by the Monte Carlo thermalization. The critical temperatures are evaluated by analyzing the optimized weight matrix, which coincide with the result of numerical calculation for the second-order phase transition in the Ising-like XXZ model with $\Delta=1.05$ but cannot be determined uniquely for the BKT transition in the XY-like XXZ model with $\Delta=0.95$.