We provide strong evidence of a quantum critical point (QCP) associated with the destruction of Kondo screening in the Anderson-Hubbard model for interacting electrons with quenched disorder. A unique crossover energy scale, $ω^*$ separating the Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid (nFL) scattering dynamics on the metallic side of the quantum critical fan is identified. The scale vanishes at the disorder driven QCP. We interpret our results by measuring the distribution of Kondo scales and find that the QCP occurs when this distribution acquires a finite intercept, indicating a Kondo destruction scenario, albeit distinct from the local QCP picture. The nFL behavior is shown to stem from an interplay of strong electron-electron interactions and the systematic inclusion of short-range dynamical fluctuations induced by the underlying random potential. The results have been obtained through a computational framework based on the typical medium dynamical cluster approximation.
We present a renormalization group analysis of the disorder effects on the low-energy behaviors of twodimensional tilted Dirac-fermion systems, in which the fermions have two distinct orbitals unrelated by any symmetry. Four types of disordered potential, two interorbital and two intraorbital, are considered. If there is only one type of interorbital disorder, the fermion-disorder scattering induces logarithmic or power-law corrections to the fermion density of states and specific heat. In contrast, the intraorbital disorder can turn the system into a strongly disordered phase. In this disorde…
We generalize the recently introduced dual fermion (DF) formalism for disordered fermion systems by including the effect of interactions. For an interacting disordered system the contributions to the full vertex function have to be separated into elastic and inelastic scattering processes, and addressed differently when constructing the DF diagrams. By applying our approach to the Anderson-Falicov-Kimball model and systematically restoring the nonlocal correlations in the DF lattice calculation, we show a significant improvement over the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory and the Coherent Potential A…
The notion of spontaneous formation of an inhomogeneous superconducting state is at the heart of most theories attempting to understand the superconducting state in the presence of strong disorder. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy and high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, we experimentally demonstrate that under the competing effects of strong homogeneous disorder and superconducting correlations, the superconducting state of a conventional superconductor, NbN, spontaneously segregates into domains. Tracking these domains as a function of temperature we observe that t…
We develop a procedure which systematically generates all conserved operators in the disordered models of interacting fermions. Among these operators, we identify and count the independent and local integrals of motion (LIOM) which represent the hallmark of the many-body localization (MBL). The method is tested first on the prototype disordered chain of interacting spinless fermions. As expected for full MBL, we find for large enough disorder $N_M=2^M-1$ independent and quasi-local LIOM with support on $M$ consecutive sites. On the other hand, the study of the disordered Hubbard chain reveals …
While the coherent potential approximation (CPA) is the prevalent method for the study of disordered electronic systems, it fails to capture non-local correlations and Anderson localization. To incorporate such effects, we extend the dual fermion approach to disordered non-interacting systems using the replica method. Results for single- and two- particle quantities show good agreement with cluster extensions of the CPA; moreover, weak localization is captured. As a natural extension of the CPA, our method presents an alternative to the existing cluster theories. It can be used in various appl…
We discuss the emergence of zero-energy Majorana modes in a disordered finite-length p-wave one-dimensional superconducting ring, pierced by a magnetic flux $Φ$ tuned at an appropriate value $Φ=Φ_*$. In the absence of fermion parity conservation, we evidence the emergence of the Majorana modes by looking at the discontinuities in the persistent current $I[Φ]$ at $Φ=Φ_*$. By monitoring the discontinuities in $I[Φ]$, we map out the region in parameter space characterized by the emergence of Majorana modes in the disordered ring.
We study one-dimensional disordered fermions that either undergo metal-insulator transitions or topological phase transitions to become trivial Anderson insulators. We focus on using entanglement to elucidate how the spatial, momentum, and internal degrees of freedom of fermions are affected by the presence of disorder in such cases. We develop entanglement tools that reveal the existence of metallic states in the presence of disorder and further show clear signatures of the corresponding localization transition even in the presence of interactions. In systems where the internal degrees of fre…
We review recent progress in our theoretical understanding of strongly correlated fermion systems in the presence of disorder. Results were obtained by the application of a powerful nonperturbative approach, the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT), to interacting disordered lattice fermions. In particular, we demonstrate that DMFT combined with geometric averaging over disorder can capture Anderson localization and Mott insulating phases on the level of one-particle correlation functions. Results are presented for the ground-state phase diagram of the Anderson-Hubbard model at half filling, bot…
In this work we develop the theory of the Loschmidt echo and dynamical phase transitions in non-interacting strongly disordered Fermi systems after a quench. In finite systems the Loschmidt echo displays zeros in the complex time plane that depend on the random potential realization. Remarkably, the zeros coalesce to form a 2D manifold in the thermodynamic limit, atypical for 1D systems, crossing the real axis at a sharply-defined critical time. We show that this dynamical phase transition can be understood as a transition in the distribution function of the smallest eigenvalue of the Loschmid…
We calculate analytically the low temperature quasi-particle scattering rate, the conductivity, and the specific heat in weakly disordered metals close to a quantum critical point, via the use of a proper fluctuation potential $V(q,ω)$ between the quasi-particles. We obtain typical Fermi liquid results proportional to $T^2$ and $T$ respectively, with prefactors which diverge as power laws of the control parameter $a$ upon approaching the critical point. The Kadowaki-Woods ratio is shown to be independent of $a$ (possibly times a logarithmic dependence on $a$) only for the case of three-dimensi…
Disordered 2D chiral fermions provide an effective description of several materials including graphene and topological insulators. While previous analysis considered delta correlated disorder and no ultraviolet cut-offs, we consider here the effect of short range correlated disorder and the presence of a momentum cut-off, providing a more realistic description of condensed matter models. We show that the density of states is anomalous with a critical exponent function of the disorder and that conductivity is universal only when the ultraviolet cut-off is removed, as consequence of the supersym…
We numerically investigate the momentum-space entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum of the random-dimer model and its generalizations, which circumvent Anderson localization, after a quench in the Hamiltonian parameters. The type of dynamics that occurs depends on whether or not the Fermi level of the initial state is near the energy of the delocalized states present in these models. If the Fermi level of the initial state is near the energy of the delocalized states, we observe an interesting slow logarithmic-like growth of the momentum-space entanglement entropy followed by an event…
We study the effect of quenched disorder on the semimetal-superconductor quantum phase transition in a model of two-dimensional Dirac semimetal with $N$ flavors of two-component Dirac fermions, using perturbative renormalization group methods at one-loop order in a double epsilon expansion. For $N\geq 2$ we find that the Harris-stable clean critical behavior gives way, past a certain critical disorder strength, to a finite-disorder critical point characterized by non-Gaussian critical exponents, a noninteger dynamic critical exponent $z>1$, and a finite Yukawa coupling between Dirac fermions a…
We review recent advances in understanding the universal scaling properties of non-equilibrium phase transitions in non-ergodic disordered systems. We discuss dynamical critical points (also known as eigenstate phase transitions) between different many-body localized (MBL) phases, and between MBL and thermal phases.
We study the infinite temperature dynamics of a prototypical one-dimensional system expected to exhibit many-body localization. Using numerically exact methods, we establish the dynamical phase diagram of this system based on the statistics of its eigenvalues and its dynamical behavior. We show that the nonergodic phase is reentrant as a function of the interaction strength, illustrating that localization can be reinforced by sufficiently strong interactions even at infinite temperature. Surprisingly, within the accessible time range, the ergodic phase shows subdiffusive behavior, suggesting t…
We investigate the growth of the entanglement entropy $S_{\textrm{ent}}$ following global quenches in two-dimensional free fermion models with potential and bond disorder. For the potential disorder case we show that an intermediate weak localization regime exists in which $S_{\textrm{ent}}(t)$ grows logarithmically in time $t$ before Anderson localization sets in. For the case of binary bond disorder near the percolation transition we find additive logarithmic corrections to area and volume laws as well as a scaling at long times which is consistent with an infinite randomness fixed point.
We analyze an interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in a 1D disordered potential using a combination of renormalization group and variational methods. We obtain the complete phase diagram in the incommensurate case as a function of bosonic and inter-species interaction strengths, in the weak disorder limit. We find that the system is characterized by several phase transitions between superfluid and various glassy insulating states, including a new Bose-Fermi glass phase, where both species are coupled and localized. We show that the dynamical structure factor, as measured through Bragg scattering exp…
We propose a simple solvable variant of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model which displays a quantum phase transition from a fast-scrambling non-Fermi liquid to disordered Fermi liquid. Like the canonical SYK model, our variant involves a single species of Majorana fermions connected by all-to-all random four-fermion interactions. The phase transition is driven by a random two-fermion term added to the Hamiltonian whose structure is inspired by proposed solid-state realizations of the SYK model. Analytic expressions for the saddle point solutions at large number $N$ of fermions are obtained and …
Dynamical conductivity in a disordered one-dimensional model of interacting fermions is studied numerically at high temperatures and in the weak-interaction regime in order to find a signature of many-body localization and vanishing d.c. transport coefficients. On the contrary, we find in the regime of moderately strong local disorder that the d.c. conductivity sigma0 scales linearly with the interaction strength while being exponentially dependent on the disorder. According to the behavior of the charge stiffness evaluated at the fixed number of particles, the absence of the many-body localiz…
The classical Ising model on the frustrated 3d swedenborgite lattice has disordered spin liquid ground states for all ratios of inter- and intra-planar couplings. Quantum fluctuations due to a transverse field give rise to several exotic quantum phenomena. In the limit of weakly coupled Kagomé layers we find a 3d version of disorder by disorder. For large out-of-plane couplings 1d macro-spins are formed which realize a disordered macro-spin liquid on an emerging triangular lattice. Signatures of this dimensional reduction are also found in critical exponents of the quantum phase transition out…
The interplay of interactions and disorder in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems has actively been studied for decades. The paradigmatic approach involves starting with a clean Fermi liquid and perturbing the system with both disorder and interactions. We instead start with a clean non-Fermi liquid near a 2D ferromagnetic quantum critical point and consider the effects of disorder. In contrast with the disordered Fermi liquid, we find that our model does not suffer from runaway flows to strong coupling and the system has a marginally stable fixed point with perfect conduction.
We study interacting 1D two-component mixtures of cold atoms in a random potential, and extend the results reported earlier [{\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 105}, 115301 (2010)]. We construct the phase diagram of a disordered Bose-Fermi mixture as a function of the strength of the Bose-Bose and Bose-Fermi interactions, and the ratio of the bosonic sound velocity and the Fermi velocity. Performing renormalization group and variational calculations, three phases are identified: (i) a fully delocalized two-component Luttinger liquid with superfluid bosons and fermions (ii) a fully localized phase wit…
Non-equilibrium quantum phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. Yet, theoretical predictions on the real-time dynamics of many-body quantum systems remain formidably challenging, especially for high dimensions, strong interactions or disordered samples. Here we consider a notable paradigm of strongly correlated Fermi systems, the Mott phase of the Hubbard model, in a setup resembling ultracold-gases experiments. We study the three-dimensional expansion of a cloud into an optical lattice after removing the confining potential. We use time-dependent density-functional theory combined with dynamical …
We demonstrate the existence of exact atypical many-body eigenstates in a class of disordered, interacting one-dimensional quantum systems that includes the Fermi-Hubbard model as a special case. These atypical eigenstates, which generically have finite energy density and are exponentially many in number, are populated by noninteracting excitations. They can exhibit Anderson localization with area-law eigenstate entanglement or, surprisingly, ballistic transport at any disorder strength. These properties differ strikingly from those of typical eigenstates nearby in energy, which we show give r…
We study the effects of local perturbations on the dynamics of disordered fermionic systems in order to characterize time-irreversibility. We focus on three different systems, the non-interacting Anderson and Aubry-André-Harper (AAH-) models, and the interacting spinless disordered t-V chain. First, we consider the effect on the full many-body wave-functions by measuring the Loschmidt echo (LE). We show that in the extended/ergodic phase the LE decays exponentially fast with time, while in the localized phase the decay is algebraic. We demonstrate that the exponent of the decay of the LE in th…
We study thermal transport in the disordered Fermi liquid at low temperatures. Gravitational potentials are used as sources for finding the heat density and its correlation function. For a comprehensive study, we extend the renormalization group (RG) analysis developed for electric transport by including the gravitational potentials into the RG scheme. Our analysis reveals that the Wiedemann-Franz law remains valid even in the presence of quantum corrections caused by the interplay of diffusion modes and the electron electron interaction. In the present scheme this fundamental relation is clos…
We study the effect of electron-electron interaction on the one-particle density of states (\emph{DOS}) $ρ^{(d)}(ε,T)$ of low-dimensional disordered metals near Fermi energy within the framework of the finite temperature conventional impurity diagram technique. We consider only diffusive limit and by a geometric re-summation of the most singular first order self-energy corrections via the Dyson equation we obtain a non-divergent solution for the \emph{DOS} at low energies, while for higher energies the well-known Altshuler-Aronov corrections are recovered. At the Fermi level $ρ^{(d)}(ε,T=0)\to…
Emergence of partially disordered antiferromagnetism and isothermal magnetization plateau due to geometrical frustration in a metallic compound, Er2RhSi3
A fermionic disordered one dimensional wire in the presence of attractive interactions is known to have two distinct phases: A localized and a superconducting one depending on the strength of interaction and disorder. The localized region may also exhibit a metallic behaviour if the system size is shorter than the localization length. Here we show that the superconducting phase has a distinct distribution of the entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum distinct from the metallic regime. The entanglement entropy distribution is strongly asymmetric with Lévy alpha stable distribution (comp…
It is now possible to study experimentally the combined effect of disorder and interactions in cold atom physics. Motivated by these developments we investigate the dynamics around the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in a one-dimensional (1D) Fermi gas with short-range interactions in a quasiperiodic potential by the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) technique. By tuning disorder and interactions we study the MIT from the weakly to the strongly interacting limit. The MIT is not universal as time evolution, well described by a process of anomalous diffusion, depends q…
Hertz-Moriya-Millis theory with dynamical critical exponent $z = 2$ has been proposed to describe antiferromagnetic quantum criticality in itinerant electron systems. In this study we show that the dynamical critical exponent changes from $z = 2$ to $z = 3$ at low temperatures, which results from effective long-range interactions between spin fluctuations, generated by Fermi-surface fluctuations beyond the Eliashberg framework. We claim that the underlying physics for the $z = 3$ antiferromagnetic quantum criticality is the emergence of fermionized skyrmion excitations at low energies, which f…
We investigate metal-insulator transitions on an interacting two-dimensional Dirac fermion system using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method. The interplay between Coulomb repulsion, disorder and magnetic fields, drives the otherwise semi-metallic regime to insulating phases exhibiting different characters. In particular, with the focus on the transport mechanisms, we uncover that their combination exhibits dichotomic effects. On the one hand, the critical Zeeman field $B_c$, responsible for triggering the band-insulating phase due to spin-polarization on the carriers, is largely reduced…
Using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method, we investigate the antiferromagnetic phase transition that is induced by the Zeeman field in a disordered interacting two-dimensional Dirac fermion system. At a fixed interaction strength $U$, the antiferromagnetic correlation is enhanced as the magnetic filed increases, and when the magnetic field is larger than a $B_{c}(U)$, the antiferromagnetic correlation shall be suppressed by the increased magnetic field. The impact of Zeeman field $B$, Coulomb repulsion $U$ and disorder $Δ$ is not isolated. The intensity of magnetic field effect on the …
We show that the Fermi surface can survive the presence of extreme compositional disorder in the equiatomic alloy Ni$_{0.25}$Fe$_{0.25}$Co$_{0.25}$Cr$_{0.25}$. Our high-resolution Compton scattering experiments reveal a Fermi surface which is smeared across a significant fraction of the Brillouin zone (up to 40\% of $\frac{2π}{a}$). The extent of this smearing and its variation on and between different sheets of the Fermi surface has been determined, and estimates of the electron mean-free-path and residual resistivity have been made by connecting this smearing with the coherence length of the…
The birefringent fermions possess a spectrum with two distinct Fermi velocities. Here based on the lattice model, we use the mean-field method to investigate the interaction-induced phase transitions of the birefringent fermions. We consider both the short-range nearest-neighbor (NN) and next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) repulsive interactions and calculate the phase diagrams under different conditions. We find that the NN interactions can induce the asymmetric charge density wave order, while the NNN interactions can drive the asymmetric quantum anomalous Hall order (AQAH) in the large limit of ani…
The classic composite fermion field theory (Ref. 1) builds up an excellent framework to uniformly study important physical objects and globally explain anomalous experimental phenomena in fractional quantum Hall physics while there are also inherent weaknesses. We present a nonperturbative emergent Dirac fermion theory from this strongly correlated composite fermion field theory, which overcomes these serious long-standing shortcomings. The particle-hole symmetry of Dirac equation resolves this particle-hole symmetry enigma in the composite fermion field theory. With the help of presented nume…
The interplay between the Fermi sea anisotropy, electron-electron interaction, and localization phenomena can give rise to exotic many-body phases. An exciting example is an anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) Wigner solid (WS), where electrons form an ordered array with an anisotropic lattice structure. Such a state has eluded experiments up to now as its realization is extremely demanding: First, a WS entails very low densities where the Coulomb interaction dominates over the kinetic (Fermi) energy. Attaining such low densities while keeping the disorder low is very challenging. Second, the low…
