Learning the phase transitions of two-dimensional Potts model with a pre-trained one-dimensional neural network

Abstract

Conventionally, the training of a neural network for learning phases of matter uses real physical quantities as the training set. However, it has been demonstrated in several studies that this may not be required. Here we investigate the phase transitions of the two-dimensional (2D) q-state Potts models on the square lattice using a pre-trained neural network (NN). The employed NN was trained previously using two artificially made configurations as the training set. Hence no training is conducted for the present study. Remarkably, the used NN not only calculates the critical points of the considered phase transitions precisely, but also determines the nature of these phase transitions definitely without ambiguity. Our results as well as the outcomes found previously suggest that training a NN using real physical quantities as the training set is not required to obtain a working NN. These unconventional studies also imply that if the configuration space of a system can be classified into two categories, then the NN considered here is likely applicable to study the phase transition of that system. Comparison between our approach and other known NN methods for studying the 2D q-state Potts models is briefly discussed as well.