Figure 1
Illustration: Alan Stonebraker

Figure 1: The algorithm begins with a classical state. Minimally entangled typical thermal states (METTS) are created by evolving a classical state in imaginary time. Subsequently, by performing a quantum measurement on the METTS, a new classical state is created and the circle closes. After discarding the first few METTS produced from this loop in order to erase any memory of the initial choice, an ensemble of only a few states allows calculation of static quantities (such as energy or magnetization) with high accuracy.