We compare accuracy of two prime time evolution algorithms involving Matrix Product States - tDMRG (time-dependent density matrix renormalization group) and TDVP (time-dependent variational principle). The latter is supposed to be superior within a limited and fixed auxiliary space dimension. Surprisingly, we find that the performance of algorithms depends on the model considered. In particular, many-body localized systems as well as the crossover regions between localized and delocalized phases are better described by tDMRG, contrary to the delocalized regime where TDVP indeed outperforms tDMRG in terms of accuracy and reliability. As an example, we study many-body localization transition in a large size Heisenberg chain. We discuss drawbacks of previous estimates [Phys. Rev. B 98, 174202 (2018)] of the critical disorder strength for large systems.
Monte Carlo simulations have been used to study the phase diagrams for square Ising-lattice gas models with two-body and three-body interactions for values of interaction parameters in a range that has not been previously considered. We find unexpected qualitative differences as compared with predictions made on general grounds.
Complex networks or graphs provide a powerful framework to understand importance of individuals and their interactions in real-world complex systems. Several graph theoretical measures have been introduced to access importance of the individual in systems represented by networks. Particularly, eigenvector centrality (EC) measure has been very popular due to its ability in measuring importance of the nodes based on not only number of interactions they acquire but also particular structural positions they have in the networks. Furthermore, the presence of certain structural features, such as the…
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.
The Green-Kubo relation, the Einstein relation, and the fluctuation-response relation are representative universal relations among measurable quantities that are valid in the linear response regime. We provide pedagogical proofs of these universal relations for stochastic many-body systems. Through these simple proofs, we characterize the three relations as follows. The Green-Kubo relation is a direct result of the local detailed balance condition, the fluctuation-response relation represents the dynamic extension of both the Green-Kubo relation and the fluctuation relation in equilibrium stat…
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…
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…
Many-body localization is shown to suppress imaginary parts of complex eigenenergies for general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians having time-reversal symmetry. We demonstrate that a real-complex transition, which we conjecture occurs upon many-body localization, profoundly affects the dynamical stability of non-Hermitian interacting systems with asymmetric hopping that respect time-reversal symmetry. Moreover, the real-complex transition is shown to be absent in non-Hermitian many-body systems with gain and/or loss that breaks time-reversal symmetry, even though the many-body localization transitio…
We discover a novel localization transition that alters the dynamics of coherence in disordered many-body spin systems subject to Markovian dissipation. The transition occurs in the middle spectrum of the Lindbladian super-operator whose eigenstates obey the universality of non-Hermitian random-matrix theory for weak disorder and exhibit localization of off-diagonal degrees of freedom for strong disorder. This Lindbladian many-body localization prevents many-body decoherence due to interactions and is conducive to robustness of the coherent dynamics characterized by the rigidity of the decay r…
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…
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…
The two-body stochastic dealer model is revisited to provide an exact solution to the average order-book profile using the kinetic approach. The dealer model is a microscopic financial model where individual traders make decisions on limit-order prices stochastically and then reach agreements on transactions. In the literature, this model was solved for several cases: an exact solution for two-body traders $N=2$ and a mean-field solution for many traders $N\gg 1$. Remarkably, while kinetic theory plays a significant role in the mean-field analysis for $N\gg 1$, its role is still elusive for th…
We use exact diagonalization to explore the many-body localization transition in a random-field spin-1/2 chain. We examine the correlations within each many-body eigenstate, looking at all states and thus effectively working at infinite temperature. For weak random field the eigenstates are thermal, as expected in this nonlocalized, ergodic phase. For strong random field the eigenstates are localized, with only short-range entanglement. We roughly locate the localization transition and examine the probability distributions of the correlations, finding that this quantum phase transition at nonz…
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 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…
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 exact nature of the many-body localization transition remains an open question. An aspect which has been posited in various studies is the emergence of scale invariance around this point, however the direct observation of this phenomenon is still absent. Here we achieve this by studying the logarithmic negativity and mutual information between disjoint blocks of varying size across the many-body localization transition. The two length scales, block sizes and the distance between them, provide a clear quantitative probe of scale invariance across different length scales. We find that at the…
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…
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…
Recent theoretical and numerical evidence suggests that localization can survive in disordered many-body systems with very high energy density, provided that interactions are sufficiently weak. Stronger interactions can destroy localization, leading to a so-called many-body localization transition. This dynamical phase transition is relevant to questions of thermalization in extended quantum systems far from the zero-temperature limit. It separates a many-body localized phase, in which localization prevents transport and thermalization, from a conducting ("ergodic") phase in which the usual as…
For classical discrete system under constant composition, we theoretically examine origin of nonlinearity in thermodynamic (so-called canonical) average w.r.t. many-body interactions, in terms of geometrical information in configuratin space. We clarify that nonlinearity essentially comes from deviation in configurational density of states (CDOS) before applying many-body interactions to the system, from multidimensional gaussian distribution. The present finding strongly suggest the significance to investigate how the deviation in CDOS bridges bidirectional stability relationships between equ…
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…
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…
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.
We show that a one-dimensional Hubbard model with all-to-all coupling may exhibit many-body localization in the presence of local disorder. We numerically identify the parameter space where many-body localization occurs using exact diagonalization and finite-size scaling. The time evolution from a random initial state exhibits features consistent with the localization picture. The dynamics can be observed with quantum gases in optical cavities, localization can be revealed through the time-dependent dynamics of the light emitted by the resonator.
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…
The possibility of observing many body localization of ultracold atoms in a one dimensional optical lattice is discussed for random interactions. In the non-interacting limit, such a system reduces to single-particle physics in the absence of disorder, i.e. to extended states. In effect the observed localization is inherently due to interactions and is thus a genuine many-body effect. In the system studied, many-body localization manifests itself in a lack of thermalization visible in temporal propagation of a specially prepared initial state, in transport properties, in the logarithmic growth…
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…
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…
Finite-size effects have been a major and justifiable source of concern for studies of many-body localization, and several works have been dedicated to the subject. In this paper, however, we discuss yet another crucial problem that has received much less attention, that of the lack of self-averaging and the consequent danger of reducing the number of random realizations as the system size increases. By taking this into account and considering ensembles with a large number of samples for all system sizes analyzed, we find that the generalized dimensions of the eigenstates of the disordered Hei…
We construct a solvable spin chain model of many-body localization (MBL) with a tunable mobility edge. This simple model not only demonstrates analytically the existence of mobility edges in interacting one-dimensional (1D) disordered systems, but also allows us to study their physics. By establishing a connection between MBL and a quantum central limit theorem (QCLT), we show that many-body localization-delocalization transitions can be visualized as tuning a mobility edge in the energy spectrum. Since the effective disorder strength for individual eigenstates depends on energy density, we id…
We study the many-body localization aspects of single-particle mobility edges in fermionic systems. We investigate incommensurate lattices and random disorder Anderson models. Many-body localization and quantum nonergodic properties are studied by comparing entanglement and thermal entropy, and by calculating the scaling of subsystem particle number fluctuations, respectively. We establish a nonergodic extended phase as a generic intermediate phase (between purely ergodic extended and nonergodic localized phases) for the many-body localization transition of non-interacting fermions where the e…
There is a counter-intuitive expectation proposed by Huse {\it et al} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 88}, 014206 (2013)], and Chandran {\it et al} [Phys. Rev. B 89,144201 (2014)]: Localization protects quantum order of groundstate even in high excited eigenstates. In this work, we numerically investigate the localization protection for symmetry-protected-topological (SPT) order by considering a modified XXZ spin model, related to an interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. We systematically study how Many-body-localization (MBL) protects SPT for different disorder types and different forms of interac…
This article is a brief introduction to the rapidly evolving field of many-body localization. Rather than giving an in-depth review of the subject, our aspiration here is simply to introduce the problem and its general context, outlining a few directions where notable progress has been achieved in recent years. We hope that this will prepare the readers for the more specialized articles appearing in the forthcoming dedicated volume of Annalen der Physik, where these developments are discussed in more detail.
We study the many-body localization of the random-field Heisenberg chain using the nested shift-invert Lanczos method with an iterative linear solver. We use the minimum residual method (MINRES) inside each Lanczos iteration. The memory consumption of the proposed method is only proportional to the dimension of the Hilbert space. We also introduce a preconditioner that takes into account the effects of disorder and interaction in the random-field Heisenberg chain. As a probe of many-body localization transition, we propose a unitary operator called the twist operator, which has a clear interpr…
Out of time ordered correlator (OTOC) is recently introduced as a powerful diagnose for quantum chaos. To go beyond, here we present an analytical solution of OTOC for a non-chaotic many body localized (MBL) system, showing distinct feature from quantum chaos and Anderson localization (AL). The OTOC is found to fall only if the nearest distance between the two operators being shorter than $ξ\ln t$, where $ξ$ is dimensionless localization length. Thereafter, we found an universal power law decay of OTOC as $2^{-ξ\ln t}$, implying an universal logarithmic growth of second Rényi entropy, where $ξ…
We study theoretically transitions between the localized and chaotic many-body regimes in one-dimensional quantum lattice systems with long-range couplings between particles and linear external potential. In terms of established criteria characterizing localization, we construct effective phase diagrams for several types of lattice systems with variable amplitude of the external linear tilt and interaction strength. By means of exact diagonalization and time-dependent variational principle numerical approaches we analyze system dynamics after quenches. Our results reveal that the Stark localiz…
We generate translationally invariant systems exhibiting many-body localization from All-Bands- Flat single particle lattice Hamiltonians dressed with suitable short-range many-body interactions. This phenomenon - dubbed Many-Body Flatband Localization (MBFBL) - is based on symmetries of both single particle and interaction terms in the Hamiltonian, and it holds for any interaction strength. We propose a generator of MBFBL Hamiltonians which covers both interacting bosons and fermions for arbitrary lattice dimensions, and we provide explicit examples of MBFBL models in one and two lattice dime…
Translationally invariant flatband Hamiltonians with interactions lead to a many-body localization transition. Our models are obtained from single particle lattices hosting a mix of flat and dispersive bands, and equipped with fine-tuned two--body interactions. Fine-tuning of the interaction results in an extensive set of local conserved charges and a fragmentation of the Hilbert space into irreducible sectors. In each sector, the conserved charges originate from the flatband and act as an effective disorder inducing a transition between ergodic and localized phases upon variation of the inter…
We use thermalization indicators and numerical linked cluster expansions to probe the onset of many-body localization in a disordered one-dimensional hard-core boson model in the thermodynamic limit. We show that after equilibration following a quench from a delocalized state, the momentum distribution indicates a freezing of one-particle correlations at higher values than in thermal equilibrium. The position of the delocalization to localization transition, identified by the breakdown of thermalization with increasing disorder strength, is found to be consistent with the value from the level …
We study many-body localised quantum systems subject to periodic driving. We find that the presence of a mobility edge anywhere in the spectrum is enough to lead to delocalisation for any driving strength and frequency. By contrast, for a fully localised many-body system, a delocalisation transition occurs at a finite driving frequency. We present numerical studies on a system of interacting one-dimensional bosons and the quantum random energy model, as well as simple physical pictures accounting for those results.
