Insertion of disorder in thermal interacting quantum systems decreases the amount of level repulsion and can turn them into many body localized phases. In this paper we use the many body picture to perturbatively study the effect of level repulsion in the localized phase. We find that most eigenstates can be described accurately in an approximate way, including many with rare resonances. A classification of the rare resonances shows that most types are exponentially rare and requires exponential fine tuning in an approximate description. The classification confirms that no rare thermal eigenstates can exist in a fully localized phase and we argue that all types of resonances need to become common if a continuous transition into a thermal phase should occur.
We study the eigenstates of a paradigmatic model of many-body localization in the Fock basis constructed out of the natural orbitals. By numerically studying the participation ratio, we identify a sharp crossover between different phases at a disorder strength close to the disorder strength at which subdiffusive behaviour sets in, significantly below the many-body localization transition. We repeat the analysis in the conventionally used computational basis, and show that many-body localized eigenstates are much stronger localized in the Fock basis constructed out of the natural orbitals than …
We numerically explore $\mathbb Z_2$-symmetric random interacting Ising-Majorana chains at high energy. A very rich phase diagram emerges with two topologically distinct many-body localization (MBL) regimes separated by a much broader thermal phase than previously found. This is a striking consequence of the avalanche theory. We further find MBL spin-glass order always associated to a many-body spectral pairing, presumably signaling a strong zero mode operator which opens fascinating perspectives for MBL-protected topological qubits.
The many-body localization transition is a dynamical quantum phase transition between a localized and an extended phase. We study this transition in the XXZ model with disordered magnetic field and focus on the time evolution following a global quantum quench. While the dynamics of the bipartite entanglement and spin fluctuations are already known to provide insights into the nature of the many-body localized phases, we discuss the relevance of these quantities in the context of the localization transition. In particular, we observe that near the transition the long time limits of both quantit…
We reinvestigate the behavior of the conductivity of several disordered quantum lattice models at infinite temperature using exact diagonalization. Contrary to the conclusion drawn in a recent investigation of similar quantities in identical systems, we find evidence of a localized regime for strong random fields. We estimate the location of the critical field for the many-body localization transition for the random-field XXZ spin chain, and compare our findings with recent investigations in related systems.
We generalize Page's result on the entanglement entropy of random pure states to the many-body eigenstates of realistic disordered many-body systems subject to long range interactions. This extension leads to two principal conclusions: first, for increasing disorder the "shells" of constant energy supporting a system's eigenstates fill only a fraction of its full Fock space and are subject to intrinsic correlations absent in synthetic high-dimensional random lattice systems. Second, in all regimes preceding the many-body localization transition individual eigenstates are thermally distributed …
We present a large scale exact diagonalization study of the one dimensional spin $1/2$ Heisenberg model in a random magnetic field. In order to access properties at varying energy densities across the entire spectrum for system sizes up to $L=22$ spins, we use a spectral transformation which can be applied in a massively parallel fashion. Our results allow for an energy-resolved interpretation of the many body localization transition including the existence of an extensive many-body mobility edge. The ergodic phase is well characterized by Gaussian orthogonal ensemble statistics, volume-law en…
We demonstrate many-body localization (MBL) transition in a one-dimensional isotropic XY chain with a weak next-nearest-neighbor frustration in a random magnetic field. We perform finite-size exact diagonalization calculations of level-spacing statistics and fractal dimensions to characterize the MBL transition with increasing the random field amplitude. An equivalent representation of the model in terms of spinless fermions explains the presence of the delocalized phase by the appearance of an effective non-local interaction between the fermions. This interaction appears due to frustration pr…
We study the dynamics of an interacting quantum spin chain under the application of a linearly increasing field. This model exhibits a type of localization known as Stark many-body localization. The dynamics shows a strong dependence on the initial conditions, indicating that the system violates the conventional ("strong") eigenstate thermalization hypothesis at any finite gradient of the field. This is contrary to reports of a numerically observed ergodic phase. Therefore, the localization is crucially distinct from disorder-driven many-body localization, in agreement with recent predictions …
We review recent developments in the study of out-of-equilibrium topological states of matter in isolated systems. The phenomenon of many-body localization, exhibited by some isolated systems usually in the presence of quenched disorder, prevents systems from equilibrating to a thermal state where the delicate quantum correlations necessary for topological order are often washed out. Instead, many-body localized systems can exhibit a type of eigenstate phase structure wherein their entire many-body spectrum is characterized by various types of quantum order, usually restricted to quantum groun…
We propose a paring mechanism between holes in the dilute limit of doped frustrated Mott insulators. Hole pairing arises from a hole-hole-magnon three-body bound state. This pairing mechanism has its roots on single-hole kinetic energy frustration, which favors antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations around the hole. We demonstrate that the AFM polaron (hole-magnon bound state) produced by a single-hole propagating on a field-induced polarized background is strong enough to bind a a second hole. The effective interaction between these three-body bound states is repulsive, implying that this pairi…
In this work we report on a loss of ergodicity in a simple hopping model, motivated by the Hubbard Hamiltonian, of a many body quantum system at zero temperature, quantized in Euclidean time. We show that this quantum system may lose ergodicity at high densities on a large lattice, as a result of both Pauli exclusion and strong Coulomb repulsion. In particular we study particle hopping susceptibilities and the tendency towards particle localization. It is found that the appearance and existence of quantum phase transitions in this model, in the case of high density and strong Coulomb repulsion…
We study the level statistics of a generalized Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with two-body and one-body random interactions of finite range by exact diagonalization. Tuning the range of the one-body term, while keeping the two-body interaction sufficiently long-ranged, does not alter substantially the spectral correlations, which are still given by the random matrix prediction typical of a quantum chaotic system. However a transition to an insulating state, characterized by Poisson statistics, is observed by reducing the range of the two-body interaction. Close to the many-body metal-insulator…
The family of "Jack states" related to antisymmetric Jack polynomials are the exact zero-energy ground states of particular model short-range {\em many-body} repulsive interactions, defined by a few non-vanishing leading pseudopotentials. Some Jack states are known or anticipated to accurately describe many-electron incompressible ground states emergent from the {\em two-body} Coulomb repulsion in fractional quantum Hall effect. By extensive numerical diagonalization we demonstrate emergence of Jack states from suitable pair interactions. We find empirically a simple formula for the optimal tw…
We study entanglement dynamics in a diagonal dephasing model in which the strength of interaction decays exponentially with distance -- the so-called l-bit model of many-body localization. We calculate the exact expression for entanglement growth with time, finding in addition to a logarithmic growth, a sublogarithmic correction. Provided the l-bit picture correctly describes the many-body localized phase this implies that the entanglement in such systems does not grow (just) as a logarithm of time, as believed so far.
We study the localization problem of one-dimensional interacting spinless fermions in an incommensurate optical lattice, which changes from an extended phase to a nonergoic many-body localized phase by increasing the strength of the incommensurate potential. We identify that there exists an intermediate regime before the system enters the many-body localized phase, in which both the localized and extended many-body states coexist, thus the system is divided into three different phases, which can be characterized by normalized participation ratios of the many-body eigenstates and distributions …
These are lecture notes based on three lectures given by Antonello Scardicchio at the December 2016 Topical School on Many-Body-Localization organized by the Statistical Physics Group of the Institute Jean Lamour in Nancy. They were compiled and put in a coherent logical form by Thimothée Thiery.
We analyze the hard-core Bose-Hubbard model with both the three-body and nearest neighbor repulsions on the triangular lattice. The phase diagram is achieved by means of the semi-classical approximation and the quantum Monte Carlo simulation. For a system with only the three-body interactions, both the supersolid phase and one third solid disappear while the two thirds solid stably exists. As the thermal behavior of the bosons with nearest neighbor repulsion, the solid and the superfluid undergo the 3-state Potts and the Kosterlitz-Thouless type phase transitions, respectively. In a system wit…
In contrast with Anderson localization where a genuine localization is observed in real space, the many-body localization (MBL) problem is much less understood in the Hilbert space, support of the eigenstates. In this work, using exact diagonalization techniques we address the ergodicity properties in the underlying ${\cal{N}}$-dimensional complex networks spanned by various computational bases for up to $L=24$ spin-1/2 particles (i.e. Hilbert space of size ${\cal{N}}\simeq 2.7\,10^6$). We report fully ergodic eigenstates in the delocalized phase (irrespective of the computational basis), whil…
We provide a simple and predictive random-matrix framework that naturally generalizes Page's law for ergodic many-body systems by incorporating a finite entanglement localization length. By comparing a highly structured one-dimensional model to a completely unstructured model and a physical system, we uncover a remarkable degree of universality, suggesting that the effective localization length is a universal combination of model parameters up until it drops down to the microscopic scale.
Study how quantum information propagates through spacetime manifold provides a means of identifying, distinguishing, and classifying novel phases of matter fertilized by many-body effects in strongly interacting systems in and out of equilibrium. Via a fuller characterization of key aspects regarding dynamic behaviors of information, we perform such an analysis on constrained many-body localization -- a newly proposed fully localized state under infinite-interaction limit -- in quasirandom Rydberg blockade spin chain models using thermal out-of-time-order commutators (OTOCs). The OTOC light co…
Many-body localization occurs in isolated quantum systems when Anderson localization persists in the presence of finite interactions. Despite strong evidence for the existence of a many-body localization transition a reliable extraction of the critical disorder strength is difficult due to a large drift with system size in the studied quantities. In this work we explore two entanglement properties that are promising for the study of the manybody localization transition: the variance of the half-chain entanglement entropy of exact eigenstates and the long time change in entanglement after a loc…
One fundamental assumption in statistical physics is that generic closed quantum many-body systems thermalize under their own dynamics. Recently, the emergence of many-body localized systems has questioned this concept, challenging our understanding of the connection between statistical physics and quantum mechanics. Here we report on the observation of a many-body localization transition between thermal and localized phases for bosons in a two-dimensional disordered optical lattice. With our single site resolved measurements we track the relaxation dynamics of an initially prepared out-of-equ…
With a variational three--body calculation we study the role of the interplay between the onsite Coulomb, Hund's rule, and superexchange interactions on the spinwave excitation spectrum of itinerant ferromagnets. We show that correlations between a Fermi sea electron--hole pair and a magnon result in a very pronounced zone boundary softening and strong deviations from the Heisenberg spinwave dispersion. We show that this spin dynamics depends sensitively on the Coulomb and exchange interactions and discuss its possible relevance to experiments in the manganites.
We experimentally observe many-body localization of interacting fermions in a one-dimensional quasi-random optical lattice. We identify the many-body localization transition through the relaxation dynamics of an initially-prepared charge density wave. For sufficiently weak disorder the time evolution appears ergodic and thermalizing, erasing all remnants of the initial order. In contrast, above a critical disorder strength a significant portion of the initial ordering persists, thereby serving as an effective order parameter for localization. The stationary density wave order and the critical …
Motivated by a recent optical-lattice experiment by Choi et al.[Science 352, 1547 (2016)], we discuss how domain-wall melting can be used to investigate many-body localization. First, by considering noninteracting fermion models, we demonstrate that experimentally accessible measures are sensitive to localization and can thus be used to detect the delocalization-localization transition, including divergences of characteristic length scales. Second, using extensive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we study fermions with repulsive interactions on a chain and a two…
Within the standard model of many-body localization, i.e., the disordered chain of spinless fermions, we investigate how the interaction affects the many-body states in the basis of noninteracting localized Anderson states. From this starting point we follow the approach that uses a reduced basis of many-body states. Together with an extrapolation to the full basis, it proves to be efficient for the evaluation of the stiffnesses of local observables, which remain finite within the non-ergodic regime and represent the hallmark of the many-body localization (MBL). The method enables a larger spa…
We theoretically study correlations present deep in the spectrum of many-body-localized systems. An exact analytical expression for the spectral form factor of Poisson spectra can be obtained and is shown to agree well with numerical results on two models exhibiting many-body-localization: a disordered quantum spin chain and a phenomenological $l$-bit model based on the existence of local integrals of motion. We also identify a universal regime that is insensitive to the global density of states as well as spectral edge effects.
Despite tremendous theoretical efforts to understand subtleties of the many-body localization (MBL) transition, many questions remain open, in particular concerning its critical properties. Here we make the key observation that MBL in one dimension is accompanied by a spin freezing mechanism which causes chain breakings in the thermodynamic limit. Using analytical and numerical approaches, we show that such chain breakings directly probe the typical localization length, and that their scaling properties at the MBL transition agree with the Kosterlitz-Thouless scenario predicted by phenomenolog…
It is typically assumed that disorder is essential to realize Anderson localization. Recently, a number of proposals have suggested that an interacting, translation invariant system can also exhibit localization. We examine these claims in the context of a one-dimensional spin ladder. At intermediate time scales, we find slow growth of entanglement entropy consistent with the phenomenology of many-body localization. However, at longer times, all finite wavelength spin polarizations decay in a finite time, independent of system size. We identify a single length scale which parametrically contro…
Entanglement is usually quantified by von Neumann entropy, but its properties are much more complex than what can be expressed with a single number. We show that the three distinct dynamical phases known as thermalization, Anderson localization, and many-body localization are marked by different patterns of the spectrum of the reduced density matrix for a state evolved after a quantum quench. While the entanglement spectrum displays Poisson statistics for the case of Anderson localization, it displays universal Wigner-Dyson statistics for both the cases of many-body localization and thermaliza…
The many body localization (MBL) of spin-1/2 fermions poses a challenging problem. It is known that the disorder in the charge sector may be insufficient to cause full MBL. Here, we study dynamics of a single hole in one dimensional t-J model subject to a random magnetic field. We show that strong disorder that couples only to the spin sector localizes both spin and charge degrees of freedom. Charge localization is confirmed also for a finite concentration of holes. While we cannot precisely pinpoint the threshold disorder, we conjecture that there are two distinct transitions. Weaker disorder…
We present numerical results within the one-dimensional disordered Hubbard model for several characteristic indicators of the many-body localization (MBL). Considering traditionally studied charge disorder (i.e., the same disorder strength for both spin orientations) we find that even at strong disorder all signatures consistently show that while charge degree of freedom is non-ergodic, the spin is delocalized and ergodic. This indicates the absence of the full MBL in the model that has been simulated in recent cold-atom experiments. Full localization can be restored if spin-dependent disorder…
Recent experimental reports suggested the existence of a finite-temperature insulator in the vicinity of the superconductor-insulator transition. The rapid decay of conductivity over a narrow temperature range was theoretically linked to both a finite-temperature transition to a many-body-localized state, and to a charge-Berezinskii Kosterlitz Thouless transition. Here we report of low-frequency noise measurements of such insulators to test for many body localization. We observed a huge enhancement of the low-temperatures noise when exceeding a threshold voltage for nonlinear conductivity and …
We propose to observe many-body localization in cold atomic gases by realizing a Bose-Hubbard chain with binary disorder and studying its non-equilibrium dynamics. In particular, we show that measuring the difference in occupation between even and odd sites, starting from a prepared density-wave state, provides clear signatures of localization. As hallmarks of the many-body localized phase we confirm, furthermore, a logarithmic increase of the entanglement entropy in time and Poissonian level statistics. Our numerical density-matrix renormalization group calculations for infinite system size a…
We introduce a simple, exactly solvable strong-randomness renormalization group (RG) model for the many-body localization (MBL) transition in one dimension. Our approach relies on a family of RG flows parametrized by the asymmetry between thermal and localized phases. We identify the physical MBL transition in the limit of maximal asymmetry, reflecting the instability of MBL against rare thermal inclusions. We find a critical point that is localized with power-law distributed thermal inclusions. The typical size of critical inclusions remains finite at the transition, while the average size is…
Symmetry restoration and quantum Mpemba effect in many-body localization systems
Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University（清华大学高等研究院）；Department of Physics, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学物理系）；Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所）；School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学物理学院）
I discuss whether localization in the two dimensional continuum can be stable in the presence of short range interactions. I conclude that, for an impurity model of disorder, if the system is prepared below a critical temperature $T < T_c$, then perturbation theory about the localized phase converges almost everywhere. As a result, the system is at least asymptotically localized, and perhaps even truly many body localized, depending on how certain rare regions behave. Meanwhile, for $T > T_c$, perturbation theory fails to converge, which I interpret as interaction mediated delocalization. I ca…
The fate of many-body localization in long-range interacting systems is not fully settled. For instance, the phase boundary between ergodic and many-body localized regimes is still under debate. Here, we use Floquet dynamics which can induce many-body localization in a clean long-range interacting system through spatiotemporal disorder, which are realized by regular operation of random local rotations. The phase diagram has been determined for two types of uniform and nonuniform long-range couplings. Our Floquet mechanism shows more localizing power than conventional static disorder methods as…
We show that the presence of a harmonic trap may in itself lead to many-body localization for cold atoms confined in that trap in a quasi-one-dimensional geometry. Specifically, the coexistence of delocalized phase in the center of the trap with localized region closer to the edges is predicted with the borderline dependent on the curvature of the trap. The phenomenon, similar in its origin to Stark localization, should be directly observed with cold atomic species. We discuss both the spinless and the spinful fermions, for the latter we address Stark localization at the same time as it has no…
What happens in an isolated quantum system when both disorder and interactions are present? Over the recent years, the picture of a non-thermalizing phase of matter, the many-localized phase, has emerged as a stable solution. We present a basic introduction to the topic of many-body localization, using the simple example of a quantum spin chain which allows us to illustrate several of the properties of this phase. We then briefly review the current experimental research efforts probing this physics. The largest part of this review is a selection of more specialized questions, some of which are…
Stark many-body localized (SMBL) systems have been shown both numerically and experimentally to have Bloch many-body oscillations, quantum many-body scars, and fragmentation in the large field tilt limit. Likewise, they are believed to show localization similar to disordered MBL. We explain and analytically prove all these observations by rigorously showing the existence of novel algebraic structures that are exponentially stable in time, which we call dynamical l-bits. Moreover, we show that many-body Bloch oscillations persist even at infinite temperature for exponentially long-times. We num…
The recently derived sum rules for the scattering phase shifts of the Overhauser geminals (being 2-body-wave functions which parametrize the pair density together with an appropriately chosen occupancy) are generalized to integral equations which allow in principle to calculate the momentum distribution, supposed the phase sifts of the Overhauser geminals are known from an effective parity-dependent interaction potential (screened Coulomb repulsion).
Nonequilibrium dynamics in isolated quantum many-body systems displays a number of intriguing features, such as many-body localization (MBL) and prethermalization. Here we investigate a simple ladder system with disorder, in which various distinct dynamical features coexist and interplay. By exact diagonalization, we demonstrate that the system exhibits the signatures of an MBL-ergodic-MBL reentrant transition, metastability, and disorder-free MBL. We give an account of these properties by introducing a quasi-particle picture and interpreting the quasi-vacuum energy fluctuation as an effective…
