ITensor Basics Quick Start

Thomas E. Baker & Miles Stoudenmire — May 4, 2016

Let's create the simplest possible program involving an ITensor.

If you need help compiling the program below, there is a set of codes in the tutorial/project_template folder included in the ITensor source directory which you can use as a template for your own program. See the README file in tutorial/project_template for instructions.

Here is our program hello_itensor.cc.

#include "itensor/all.h"
using namespace itensor;

int main()
{
auto i = Index(4,"index i");
auto j = Index(6,"index j");
auto T = ITensor(i,j);

T.set(i=3,j=2,3.14159);

PrintData(T);

return 0;
}

To understand what this program does, let us start at the top. The line

#include "itensor/all.h"

pulls in all of the ITensor library's classes and functions.

The next line of the program

using namespace itensor;

says to not require explicitly writing the itensor namespace in front of function and type names. Otherwise you would have to type things like itensor::Index instead of just Index.

Now we reach the actual code our program will run. C++ requires that all programs have a function named main which is the first function to run when your program is executed

int main()
{

//...rest of code here

return 0;
}

Now let us look at the body of the code. First we define tensor indices i and j, of type Index.

auto i = Index(4,"index i");
auto j = Index(6,"index j");

Each Index has a name and a size. Using these indices, we can define an ITensor

auto T = ITensor(i,j);

which starts out with all elements zero. To change an element, we can call

T.set(i=3,j=2,3.14159);

which sets the i=3, j=2 element to the value 3.14159.

The PrintData macro conveniently prints information about the ITensor T (such as its indices) and shows all of its non-zero elements:

PrintData(T);