Gauge potential is an emergent concept in systems of ultracold atomic gases. Derived from quantum waves immersed in an \emph{Abelian} gauge, the quasiperiodic Aubry-Andre-Harper (AAH) model is a simple yet powerful Hamiltonian to study the Anderson localization of ultracold atoms. In this work, we investigate the localization properties of ultracold atoms trapped in quasiperiodic optical lattices subject to a non-Abelian gauge, which can be depicted by a family of non-Abelian AAH models. We identify that the non-Abelian AAH models can bear the self-duality under the Fourier transformation. We thus analyze the localization transition of this self-dual non-Abelian quasiperiodic optical lattices, revealing that the non-Abelian gauge involved drives a transition from a pure delocalization phase, then to coexistence phases, and then finally to a pure localization phase. This is in stark contrast to the Abelian AAH model that does not support the coexistence phases. Our results thus comprise a new insight on the fundamental aspects of Anderson localization in quasiperiodic systems, from the perspective of non-Abelian gauge.
We study the localization properties of weakly interacting Bose gas in a quasiperiodic potential commonly known as Aubry-André model. Effect of interaction on localization is investigated by computing the `superfluid fraction' and `inverse participation ratio'. For interacting Bosons the inverse participation ratio increases very slowly after the localization transition due to `multisite localization' of the wave function. We also study the localization in Aubry-André model using an alternative approach of classical dynamical map, where the localization is manifested by chaotic classical dynam…
We theoretically investigate the localization properties of a spin-orbit coupled spin-1/2 particle moving in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic potential, which can be experimentally implemented using cold atoms trapped in a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential and external laser fields. We present the phase diagram in the parameter space of the disorder strength and those related to the spin-orbit coupling. The phase diagram is verified via multifractal analysis of the atomic wavefunctions and the numerical simulation of diffusion dynamics. We found that spin-orbit coupling can lead to the sp…
We study the localization of collective pair excitations in weakly-interacting Bose superfluids in one-dimensional quasiperiodic lattices. The localization diagram is first determined numerically. For intermediate interaction and quasiperiodic amplitude we find a sharp localization transition, with extended low-energy states and localized high-energy states. We then develop an analytical treatment, which allows us to quantitatively map the localization transition into that of an effective multiharmonic quasiperiodic system.
Low dimensional quasiperiodic systems exhibit localization transitions by turning all quantum states localized after a critical quasidisorder. While certain systems with modified or constrained quasiperiodic potential undergo multiple localization transitions in one dimension, we predict an emergence of multiple localization transitions without directly imposing any constraints on the quasiperiodic potential. By considering a one-dimensional system described by the Aubry-Andŕe (AA) model, we show that an additional staggered onsite potential can drive the system through a series of localizatio…
We consider a quantum particle subject to Ohmic dissipation, moving in a bichromatic quasiperiodic potential. In a periodic potential the particle undergoes a zero-temperature localization-delocalization transition as dissipation strength is decreased. We show that the delocalized phase is absent in the quasiperiodic case, even when the deviation from periodicity is infinitesimal. Using the renormalization group, we determine how the effective localization length depends on the dissipation. We show that {a similar problem can emerge in} the strong-coupling limit of a mobile impurity moving in …
Quasiperiodic systems offer an appealing intermediate between long-range ordered and genuine disordered systems, with unusual critical properties. One-dimensional models that break the so-called self-dual symmetry usually display a mobility edge, similarly as truly disordered systems in dimension strictly higher than two. Here, we determine the critical localization properties of single particles in shallow, one-dimensional, quasiperiodic models and relate them to the fractal character of the energy spectrum. On the one hand, we determine the mobility edge and show that it separates the locali…
We investigate the zero-temperature metal-insulator transition in a one-dimensional two-component Fermi gas in the presence of a quasi-periodic potential resulting from the superposition of two optical lattices of equal intensity but incommensurate periods. A mobility edge separating (low energy) Anderson localized and (high energy) extended single-particle states appears in this continuous-space model beyond a critical intensity of the quasi-periodic potential. In order to discern the metallic phase from the insulating phase in the interacting many-fermion system, we employ unbiased quantum M…
Systems with quasiperiodic disorder are known to exhibit localization transition in low dimension. After a critical strength of disorder all the states of the system become localized, thereby ceasing the particle motion in the system. However, in our analysis we show that in a one dimensional dimerized lattice with staggered quasiperiodic disorder, after the localization transition some of the localized eigenstates become extended for a range of intermediate disorder strengths. Eventually, the system undergoes a second localization transition at a higher disorder strength leading to all states…
Quasiperiodic modulation can prevent isolated quantum systems from equilibrating by localizing their degrees of freedom. In this article, we show that such systems can exhibit dynamically stable long-range orders forbidden in equilibrium. Specifically, we show that the interplay of symmetry breaking and localization in the quasiperiodic quantum Ising chain produces a \emph{quasiperiodic Ising glass} stable at all energy densities. The glass order parameter vanishes with an essential singularity at the melting transition with no signatures in the equilibrium properties. The zero temperature pha…
We study the many body localization (MBL) transition for interacting fermions subject to quasiperiodic potentials by constructing the local integrals of motion (LIOMs) in the MBL phase as time-averaged local operators. We study numerically how these time-averaged operators evolve across the MBL transition. We find that the norm of such time-averaged operators drops discontinuously to zero across the transition; as we discuss, this implies that LIOMs abruptly become unstable at some critical localization length of order unity. We analyze the LIOMs using hydrodynamic projections and isolating th…
Sufficient disorder is believed to localize static and periodically-driven interacting chains. With quasiperiodic driving by $D$ incommensurate tones, the fate of this many-body localization (MBL) is unknown. We argue that randomly disordered MBL exists for $D=2$, but not for $D\geq 3$. Specifically, a putative two-tone driven MBL chain is neither destabilized by thermal avalanches seeded by rare thermal regions, nor by the proliferation of long-range many-body resonances. For $D\geq 3$, however, sufficiently large thermal regions have continuous local spectra and slowly thermalize the entire …
We investigate the topology and localization of one-dimensional Hermitian and non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains with quasiperiodic hopping modulations. In the Hermitian case, phase diagrams are obtained by numerically and analytically calculating various topological and localization characters. We show the presence of topological extended, intermediate, and localized phases due to the coexistence of independent topological and localization phase transitions driven by the quasiperiodic disorder. Unlike the gapless and localized TAI phase in one-dimensional random disordered systems, we …
In the presence of sufficiently strong disorder or quasiperiodic fields, an interacting many-body system can fail to thermalize and become many-body localized. The associated transition is of particular interest, since it occurs not only in the ground state but over an extended range of energy densities. So far, theoretical studies of the transition have focused mainly on the case of true-random disorder. In this work, we experimentally and numerically investigate the regime close to the many-body localization transition in quasiperiodic systems. We find slow relaxation of the density imbalanc…
We investigate the localization and topological transitions in a one-dimensional (interacting) non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice, which is described by a generalized Aubry-André-Harper model with irrational modulations in the off-diagonal hopping and on-site potential and with non-Hermiticities from the nonreciprocal hopping and complex potential phase. For noninteracting cases, we reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the complex potential phase) can enlarge the delocalization (localization) region in the phase diagrams spanned by two quasiperiodical modulation strengths. We show that the …
We show that the tails of the asymptotic density distribution of a quantum wave packet that localizes in the the presence of random or quasiperiodic disorder can be described by the diagonal term of the projection over the eingenstates of the disordered potential. This is equivalent of assuming a phase randomization of the off-diagonal/interference terms. We demonstrate these results through numerical calculations of the dynamics of ultracold atoms in the one-dimensional speckle and quasiperiodic potentials used in the recent experiments that lead to the observation of Anderson localization fo…
Precise nature of MBL transitions in both random and quasiperiodic (QP) systems remains elusive so far. In particular, whether MBL transitions in QP and random systems belong to the same universality class or two distinct ones has not been decisively resolved. Here we investigate MBL transitions in one-dimensional ($d\!=\!1$) QP systems as well as in random systems by state-of-the-art real-space renormalization group (RG) calculation. Our real-space RG shows that MBL transitions in 1D QP systems are characterized by the critical exponent $ν\!\approx\!2.4$, which respects the Harris-Luck bound …
Whether disordered and quasiperiodic many-body quantum systems host a long-lived localized phase in the thermodynamic limit has been the subject of intense recent debate. While in one dimension substantial evidence for the existence of such a many-body localized (MBL) phase exists, the behavior in higher dimensions remains an open puzzle. In two-dimensional disordered systems, for instance, it has been argued that rare regions may lead to thermalization of the whole system through a mechanism dubbed the avalanche instability. In quasiperiodic systems, rare regions are altogether absent and the…
In general, isolated integrable quantum systems have been found to relax to an apparent equilibrium state in which the expectation values of few-body observables are described by the generalized Gibbs ensemble. However, recent work has shown that relaxation to such a generalized statistical ensemble can be precluded by localization in a quasiperiodic lattice system. Here we undertake complementary single-particle and many-body analyses of noninteracting spinless fermions and hard-core bosons within the Aubry-Andre model to gain insight into this phenomenon. Our investigations span both the loc…
We study a one-dimensional lattice model subject to non-Hermitian quasiperiodic potentials. Firstly, we strictly demonstrate that there exists an interesting dual mapping relation between $|a|<1$ and $|a|>1$ with regard to the potential tuning parameter $a$. The localization property of $|a|<1$ can be directly mapping to that of $|a|>1$, the analytical expression of the mobility edge of $|a|>1$ is therefore obtained through spectral properties of $|a|<1$. More impressive, we prove rigorously that even if the phase $θ\neq 0$ in quasiperiodic potentials, the model becomes non-$\mathcal{PT}$ symm…
We study a one-dimensional $p$-wave superconductor subject to non-Hermitian quasiperiodic potentials. Although the existence of the non-Hermiticity, the Majorana zero mode is still robust against the disorder perturbation. The analytic topological phase boundary is verified by calculating the energy gap closing point and the topological invariant. Furthermore, we investigate the localized properties of this model, revealing that the topological phase transition is accompanied with the Anderson localization phase transition, and a wide critical phase emerges with amplitude increments of the non…
Motivated by recent experiments in fermionic polar gases, we study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two-component dipolar fermions subject to a quasiperiodic potential. We investigate the localization of charge and spin degrees of freedom time evolving with a long-range spin-SU(2) symmetric fermionic Hamiltonian, by calculating experimentally accessible dynamical observables. To study the non-equilibrium dynamics, we start the time evolution with two initial states at half-filling: (i) product state with doublons $|\uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \downarrow 0 \uparrow \down…
We study time dynamics of 1D disordered Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain focusing on a regime of large system sizes and a long time evolution. This regime is relevant for observation of many-body localization (MBL), a phenomenon that is expected to freeze the dynamics of the system and prevent it from reaching thermal equilibrium. Performing extensive numerical simulations of the imbalance, a quantity often employed in the experimental studies of MBL, we show that the regime of a slow power-law decay of imbalance persists to disorder strengths exceeding by at least a factor of 2 the current estimates…
