Operator Score Matching for Learning Quantum Hamiltonians

Learning quantum Hamiltonians from low-temperature thermal state measurements is a fundamental problem in quantum physics. Scalability of existing methods is limited by the complexity of semidefinite optimization problems or partition function computation. Here, we develop a quantum analog of classical score matching method that exploits generalized notions of derivatives and integration by parts in operator algebras. We introduce a new Operator Score Matching loss function that recovers Hamiltonian parameters by a simple gradient descent without the need to compute intractable normalization constants. Numerical experiments on the Gibbs states of the transverse-field Ising model, XXZ spin chain, Fermi-Hubbard model, and lattice φ⁴ theory demonstrate efficient parameter recovery using finite-depth truncations of nested commutator expansions. Our results establish Operator Score Matching as a practical, partition-function-free framework for quantum Hamiltonian learning.