Analysis of sum-of-squares relaxations for the quantum rotor model

The noncommutative sum-of-squares (ncSoS) hierarchy was introduced by Navascu\'{e}s-Pironio-Ac\'{i}n as a sequence of semidefinite programming relaxations for approximating values of noncommutative polynomial optimization problems, which were originally intended to generalize quantum values of nonlocal games. Recent work has started to analyze the hierarchy for approximating ground energies of local Hamiltonians, initially through rounding algorithms which output product states for degree-2 ncSoS applied to Quantum Max-Cut. Some rounding methods are known which output entangled states, but they use degree-4 ncSoS. Based on this, Hwang-Neeman-Parekh-Thompson-Wright conjectured that degree-2 ncSoS cannot beat product state approximations for Quantum Max-Cut and gave a partial proof relying on a conjectural generalization of Borrell's inequality. In this work we consider a family of Hamiltonians (called the quantum rotor model in condensed matter literature or lattice $O(k)$ vector model in quantum field theory) with infinite-dimensional local Hilbert space $L^{2}(S^{k - 1})$, and show that a degree-2 ncSoS relaxation approximates the ground state energy better than any product state.