  A tensor network is a diagram that specifies a way to "multiply" a collection
of tensors together to produce another tensor (or matrix). Many existing
algorithms for tensor problems (such as tensor decomposition and tensor PCA),
although they are not presented this way, can be viewed as spectral methods on
matrices built from simple tensor networks. In this work we leverage the full
power of this abstraction to design new algorithms for certain continuous
tensor decomposition problems.
  An important and challenging family of tensor problems comes from orbit
recovery, a class of inference problems involving group actions (inspired by
applications such as cryo-electron microscopy). Orbit recovery problems over
finite groups can often be solved via standard tensor methods. However, for
infinite groups, no general algorithms are known. We give a new spectral
algorithm based on tensor networks for one such problem: continuous
multi-reference alignment over the infinite group SO(2). Our algorithm extends
to the more general heterogeneous case.
