In this work we probe the dynamics of the particle-hole symmetric many-body localized (MBL) phase. We provide numerical evidence that it can be characterized by an algebraic propagation of both entanglement and charge, unlike in the conventional MBL case. We explain the mechanism of this anomalous diffusion through a formation of bound states, which coherently propagate via long-range resonances. By projecting onto the two-particle sector of the particle-hole symmetric model, we show that the formation and observed subdiffusive dynamics is a consequence of an interplay between symmetry and interactions.
Recently, it has been suggested that the Many-Body Localized phase can be characterized by local integrals of motion. Here we introduce a Hilbert space preserving renormalization scheme that iteratively finds such integrals of motion exactly. Our method is based on the consecutive action of a similarity transformation using displacement operators. We show, as a proof of principle, localization and the delocalization transition in interacting fermion chains with random onsite potentials. Our scheme of consecutive displacement transformations can be used to study Many Body Localization in any di…
Motivated by the findings of logarithmic spreading of entanglement in a many-body localized system, we more closely examine the spreading of entanglement in the fully many-body localized phase, where all many-body eigenstates are localized. Performing full diagonalizations of an XXZ spin model with random longitudinal fields, we identify two factors contributing to the spreading rate: the localization length ($ξ$), which depends on the disorder strength, and the final value of entanglement per spin ($s_\infty$), which primarily depends on the initial state. We find that the entanglement entrop…
We survey the recent progress made in understanding non equilibrium dynamics in closed random systems. The emphasis is on the important role played by concepts from quantum information theory and on the application of systematic renormalization group methods to capture universal aspects of the dynamics. Finally we outline some outstanding open questions, which includee the description of the many-body localization phase transition and identifying physical systems that will allow systematic experimental study of these phenomena.
We introduce techniques for analysing the structure of quantum states of many-body localized (MBL) spin chains by identifying correlation clusters from pairwise correlations. These techniques proceed by interpreting pairwise correlations in the state as a weighted graph, which we analyse using an established graph theoretic clustering algorithm. We validate our approach by studying the eigenstates of a disordered XXZ spin chain across the MBL to ergodic transition, as well as the non-equilibrium dyanmics in the MBL phase following a global quantum quench. We successfully reproduce theoretical …
We study the transition from a many-body localized phase to an ergodic phase in spin chain with correlated random magnetic fields. Using multiple statistical measures like gap statistics and extremal entanglement spectrum distributions, we find the phase diagram in the disorder-correlation plane, where the transition happens at progressively larger values of the correlation with increasing values of disorder. We then show that one can use the average of sample variance of magnetic fields as a single parameter which encodes the effects of the correlated disorder. The distributions and averages …
We develop a mean-field theory of the metallic phase near the many-body localization (MBL) transition, using the observation that a system near the MBL transition should become an increasingly slow heat bath for its constituent parts. As a first step, we consider the properties of a many-body localized system coupled to a generic ergodic bath whose characteristic dynamical timescales are much slower than those of the system. As we discuss, a wide range of experimentally relevant systems fall into this class; we argue that relaxation in these systems is dominated by collective many-particle rea…
In the presence of strong disorder and weak interactions, closed quantum systems can enter a many-body localized phase where the system does not conduct, does not equilibrate even for arbitrarily long times, and robustly violates quantum statistical mechanics. The starting point for such a many-body localized phase is usually taken to be an Anderson insulator where, in the limit of vanishing interactions, all degrees of freedom of the system are localized. Here, we instead consider a model where in the non-interacting limit, some degrees of freedom are localized while others remain delocalized…
Many-body localized (MBL) systems lie outside the framework of statistical mechanics, as they fail to equilibrate under their own quantum dynamics. Even basic features of MBL systems such as their stability to thermal inclusions and the nature of the dynamical transition to thermalizing behavior remain poorly understood. We study a simple model to address these questions: a two level system interacting with strength $J$ with $N\gg 1$ localized bits subject to random fields. On increasing $J$, the system transitions from a MBL to a delocalized phase on the \emph{vanishing} scale $J_c(N) \sim 1/…
The entanglement spectrum of the reduced density matrix contains information beyond the von Neumann entropy and provides unique insights into exotic orders or critical behavior of quantum systems. Here, we show that strongly disordered systems in the many-body localized phase have power-law entanglement spectra, arising from the presence of extensively many local integrals of motion. The power-law entanglement spectrum distinguishes many-body localized systems from ergodic systems, as well as from ground states of gapped integrable models or free systems in the vicinity of scale-invariant crit…
Quantum phase transitions are usually observed in ground states of correlated systems. Remarkably, eigenstate phase transitions can also occur at finite energy density in disordered, isolated quantum systems. Such transitions fall outside the framework of statistical mechanics as they involve the breakdown of ergodicity. Here, we consider what general constraints can be imposed on the nature of eigenstate transitions due to the presence of disorder. We derive Harris-type bounds on the finite-size scaling exponents of the mean entanglement entropy and level statistics at the many-body localizat…
We describe a new regime for low-field magnetoresistance in organic semiconductors, in which the spin-relaxing effects of localized nuclear spins and electronic spins interfere. The regime is studied by the controlled addition of localized electronic spins to a material that exhibits substantial room-temperature magnetoresistance ($\sim 20$\%). Although initially the magnetoresistance is suppressed by the doping, at intermediate doping there is a regime where the magnetoresistance is insensitive to the doping level. For much greater doping concentrations the magnetoresistance is fully suppress…
We explore the response of many-body localized (MBL) systems to periodic driving of arbitrary amplitude, focusing on the rate at which they exchange energy with the drive. To this end, we introduce an infinite-temperature generalization of the effective "heating rate" in terms of the spread of a random walk in energy space. We compute this heating rate numerically and estimate it analytically in various regimes. When the drive amplitude is much smaller than the frequency, this effective heating rate is given by linear response theory with a coefficient that is proportional to the optical condu…
Many-body localization is a unique physical phenomenon driven by interactions and disorder for which a quantum system can evade thermalization. While the existence of a many-body localized phase is now well-established in one-dimensional systems, its fate in higher dimension is an open question. We present evidence for the occurrence of a transition to a many-body localized regime in a two-dimensional quantum dimer model with interactions and disorder. Our analysis is based on the results of large-scale simulations for static and dynamical properties of a consequent number of observables. Our …
We introduce a unitary matrix-product operator (UMPO) based variational method that approximately finds all the eigenstates of fully many-body localized (fMBL) one-dimensional Hamiltonians. The computational cost of the variational optimization scales linearly with system size for a fixed bond dimension of the UMPO ansatz. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by considering the Heisenberg chain in a strongly disordered magnetic field for which we compare the approximation to exact diagonalization results.
We study many-body-localized (MBL) systems that are weakly coupled to thermalizing environments, focusing on the spectral functions of local operators. We argue that these spectral functions carry signatures of localization even away from the limit of perfectly isolated systems. We find that, in the limit of vanishing coupling to a bath, MBL systems come in two varieties, with either discrete or continuous local spectra. Both varieties of MBL systems exhibit a "soft gap" at zero frequency in the spatially-averaged spectral functions of local operators, which serves as a diagnostic for localiza…
We theoretically study the response of a many-body localized system to a local quench from a quantum information perspective. We find that the local quench triggers entanglement growth throughout the whole system, giving rise to a logarithmic lightcone. This saturates the modified Lieb-Robinson bound for quantum information propagation in many-body localized systems previously conjectured based on the existence of local integrals of motion. In addition, near the localization-delocalization transition, we find that the final states after the local quench exhibit volume-law entanglement. We also…
The eigenstates of many-body localized (MBL) Hamiltonians exhibit low entanglement. We adapt the highly successful density-matrix renormalization group method, which is usually used to find modestly entangled ground states of local Hamiltonians, to find individual highly excited eigenstates of many body localized Hamiltonians. The adaptation builds on the distinctive spatial structure of such eigenstates. We benchmark our method against the well studied random field Heisenberg model in one dimension. At moderate to large disorder, we find that the method successfully obtains excited eigenstate…
Coupling a many-body-localized system to a dissipative bath necessarily leads to delocalization. Here, we investigate the nature of the ensuing relaxation dynamics and the information it holds on the many-body-localized state. We formulate the relevant Lindblad equation in terms of the local integrals of motion of the underlying localized Hamiltonian. This allows to map the quantum evolution deep in the localized state to tractable classical rate equations. We consider two different types of dissipation relevant to systems of ultra-cold atoms: dephasing due to inelastic scattering on the latti…
We investigate dynamical quantum phase transitions in disordered quantum many-body models that can support many-body localized phases. Employing $l$-bits formalism, we lay out the conditions for which singularities indicative of the transitions appear in the context of many-body localization. Using the combination of the mapping onto $l$-bits and exact diagonalization results, we explicitly demonstrate the presence of these singularities for a candidate model that features many-body localization. Our work paves the way for understanding dynamical quantum phase transitions in the context of man…
We adopt a geometric perspective on Fock space to provide two complementary insights into the eigenstates in many-body-localized fermionic systems. On the one hand, individual many-bodylocalized eigenstates are well approximated by a Slater determinant of single-particle orbitals. On the other hand, the orbitals of different eigenstates in a given system display a varying, and generally imperfect, degree of compatibility, as we quantify by a measure based on the projectors onto the corresponding single-particle subspaces. We study this incompatibility between states of fixed and differing part…
We construct a complete set of local integrals of motion that characterize the many-body localized (MBL) phase. Our approach relies on the assumption that local perturbations act locally on the eigenstates in the MBL phase, which is supported by numerical simulations of the random-field XXZ spin chain. We describe the structure of the eigenstates in the MBL phase and discuss the implications of local conservation laws for its non-equilibrium quantum dynamics. We argue that the many-body localization can be used to protect coherence in the system by suppressing relaxation between eigenstates wi…
We consider fully many-body localized systems, i.e. isolated quantum systems where all the many-body eigenstates of the Hamiltonian are localized. We define a sense in which such systems are integrable, with localized conserved operators. These localized operators are interacting pseudospins, and the Hamiltonian is such that unitary time evolution produces dephasing but not "flips" of these pseudospins. As a result, an initial quantum state of a pseudospin can in principle be recovered via (pseudospin) echo procedures. We discuss how the exponentially decaying interactions between pseudospins …
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 …
Recent work suggests that a sharp definition of `phase of matter' can be given for periodically driven `Floquet' quantum systems exhibiting many-body localization. In this work we propose a classification of the phases of interacting Floquet localized systems with (completely) spontaneously broken symmetries -- we focus on the one dimensional case, but our results appear to generalize to higher dimensions. We find that the different Floquet phases correspond to elements of $Z(G)$, the centre of the symmetry group in question. In a previous paper we offered a companion classification of unbroke…
We experimentally study a periodically driven many-body localized system realized by interacting fermions in a one-dimensional quasi-disordered optical lattice. By preparing the system in a far-from-equilibrium state and monitoring the remains of an imprinted density pattern, we identify a localized phase at high drive frequencies and an ergodic phase at low ones. These two distinct phases are separated by a dynamical phase transition which depends on both the drive frequency and the drive strength. Our observations are quantitatively supported by numerical simulations and are directly connect…
The boundary of a topological insulator (TI) hosts an anomaly restricting its possible phases: e.g. 3D strong and weak TIs maintain surface conductivity at any disorder if symmetry is preserved on-average, at least when electron interactions on the surface are weak. However the interplay of strong interactions and disorder with the boundary anomaly has not yet been theoretically addressed. Here we study this combination for the edge of a 2D TI and the surface of a 3D weak TI, showing how it can lead to an "Anomalous Many Body Localized" (AMBL) phase that preserves the anomaly. We discuss how t…
The question whether Anderson insulators can persist to finite-strength interactions - a scenario dubbed many-body localization - has recently received a great deal of interest. The origin of such a many-body localized phase has been described as localization in Fock space, a picture we examine numerically. We then formulate a precise sense in which a single energy eigenstate of a Hamiltonian can be adiabatically connected to a state of a non-interacting Anderson insulator. We call such a state a many-body localized state and define a many-body localized phase as one in which almost all states…
We show how the thermodynamic properties of large many-body localized systems can be studied using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. To this end we devise a heuristic way of constructing local integrals of motion of very high quality, which are added to the Hamiltonian in conjunction with Lagrange multipliers. The ground state simulation of the shifted Hamiltonian corresponds to a high-energy state of the original Hamiltonian in case of exactly known local integrals of motion. We can show that the inevitable mixing between eigenstates as a consequence of non-perfect integrals of motion is weak …
In this paper we first compute the out-of-time-order correlators (OTOC) for both a phenomenological model and a random-field XXZ model in the many-body localized phase. We show that the OTOC decreases in power law in a many-body localized system at the scrambling time. We also find that the OTOC can also be used to distinguish a many-body localized phase from an Anderson localized phase, while a normal correlator cannot. Furthermore, we prove an exact theorem that relates the growth of the second Rényi entropy in the quench dynamics to the decay of the OTOC in equilibrium. This theorem works f…
Many-body localization (MBL) addresses the absence of thermalization in interacting quantum systems, with non-ergodic high-energy eigenstates behaving as ground states, only area-law entangled. However, computing highly excited many-body eigenstates using exact methods is very challenging. Instead, we show that one can address high-energy MBL physics using ground-state methods, which are much more amenable to many efficient algorithms. We find that a localized many-body ground state of a given interacting disordered Hamiltonian $\mathcal{H}_0$ is a very good approximation for a high-energy eig…
We experimentally study the effects of coupling one-dimensional Many-Body Localized (MBL) systems with identical disorder. Using a gas of ultracold fermions in an optical lattice, we artifically prepare an initial charge density wave in an array of 1D tubes with quasi-random onsite disorder and monitor the subsequent dynamics over several thousand tunneling times. We find a strikingly different behavior between MBL and Anderson Localization. While the non-interacting Anderson case remains localized, in the interacting case any coupling between the tubes leads to a delocalization of the entire …
We show that the out-of-time-order correlation (OTOC) $ \langle W(t)^\dagger V(0)^\dagger W(t)V(0)\rangle$ in many-body localized (MBL) and marginal MBL systems can be efficiently calculated by the spectrum bifurcation renormalization group (SBRG). We find that in marginal MBL systems, the scrambling time $t_\text{scr}$ follows a stretched exponential scaling with the distance $d_{WV}$ between the operators $W$ and $V$: $t_\text{scr}\sim\exp(\sqrt{d_{WV}/l_0})$, which demonstrates Sinai diffusion of quantum information and the enhanced scrambling by the quantum criticality in non-chaotic syste…
A prime characterization of many-body localized (MBL) systems is the entanglement of their eigenstates; in contrast to the typical ergodic phase whose eigenstates are volume law, MBL eigenstates obey an area law. In this work, we show that a spin-disordered Hubbard model has both a large number of area-law eigenstates as well as a large number of eigenstates whose entanglement scales logarithmically with system size (log-law). This model, then, is a microscopic Hamiltonian which is neither ergodic nor many-body localized. We establish these results through a combination of analytic arguments b…
Many-body localized systems in which interactions and disorder come together defy the expectations of quantum statistical mechanics: In contrast to ergodic systems, they do not thermalize when undergoing nonequilibrium dynamics. What is less clear, however, is how topological features interplay with many-body localized phases as well as the nature of the transition between a topological and a trivial state within the latter. In this work, we numerically address these questions, using a combination of extensive tensor network calculations, specifically DMRG-X, as well as exact diagonalization, …
We use exact diagonalization to study the breakdown of many-body localization in a strongly disordered and interacting system coupled to a thermalizing environment. We show that the many-body level statistics cross over from Poisson to GOE, and the localized eigenstates thermalize, with the crossover coupling decreasing with the size of the bath in a manner consistent with the hypothesis that an infinitesimally small coupling to a thermodynamic bath should destroy localization of the eigenstates. However, signatures of incomplete localization survive in spectral functions of local operators ev…
Localization in one-dimensional disordered or quasiperiodic non-interacting systems in presence of power-law hopping is very different from localization in short-ranged systems. Power-law hopping leads to algebraic localization as opposed to exponential localization in short-ranged systems. Exponential localization is synonymous with insulating behavior in the thermodynamic limit. Here we show that the same is not true for algebraic localization. We show, on general grounds, that depending on the strength of the algebraic decay, the algebraically localized states can be actually either conduct…
We study the time evolution of one-dimensional systems of fermions with long-range interactions in the presence of strong disorder. Exact diagonalization of small systems supports many-body localization for weak Coulomb and dipolar interactions at high energy. The dephasing time of far apart degrees of freedom is analyzed. The result indicates that von Neumann entropy of one halve of the system evolves as a power law on time for a disentangled initial state. The numerical simulations performed in the Coulomb and dipolar cases are consistent with this prediction.
We consider isolated quantum systems with all of their many-body eigenstates localized. We define a sense in which such systems are integrable, and discuss a method for finding their localized conserved quantum numbers ("constants of motion"). These localized operators are interacting pseudospins and are subject to dephasing but not to dissipation, so any quantum states of these pseudospins can in principle be recovered via (spin) echo procedures. We also discuss the spreading of entanglement in many-body localized systems, which is another aspect of the dephasing due to interactions between t…
We show that the one-particle density matrix $ρ$ can be used to characterize the interaction-driven many-body localization transition in closed fermionic systems. The natural orbitals (the eigenstates of $ρ$) are localized in the many-body localized phase and spread out when one enters the delocalized phase, while the occupation spectrum (the set of eigenvalues of $ρ$) reveals the distinctive Fock-space structure of the many-body eigenstates, exhibiting a step-like discontinuity in the localized phase. The associated one-particle occupation entropy is small in the localized phase and large in …
We construct a complete set of quasi-local integrals of motion for the many-body localized phase of interacting fermions in a disordered potential. The integrals of motion can be chosen to have binary spectrum $\{0,1\}$, thus constituting exact quasiparticle occupation number operators for the Fermi insulator. We map the problem onto a non-Hermitian hopping problem on a lattice in operator space. We show how the integrals of motion can be built, under certain approximations, as a convergent series in the interaction strength. An estimate of its radius of convergence is given, which also provid…
Recent experiments in quantum simulators have provided evidence for the Many-Body Localized (MBL) phase in 1D and 2D bosonic quantum matter. The theoretical study of such bosonic MBL, however, is a daunting task due to the unbounded nature of its Hilbert space. In this work, we introduce a method to compute the long-time real-time evolution of 1D and 2D bosonic systems in an MBL phase at strong disorder and weak interactions. We focus on local dynamical indicators that are able to distinguish an MBL phase from an Anderson localized one. In particular, we consider the temporal fluctuations of l…
In this work we investigate the effects of configurational disorder on the eigenstates and dynamical properties of a tight-binding model on a quasi-one-dimensional comb lattice, consisting of a backbone decorated with linear offshoots of randomly distributed lengths. We show that all eigenstates are exponentially localized along the backbone of the comb. Moreover, we demonstrate the presence of an extensive number of compact localized states with precisely zero localization length. We provide an analytical understanding of these states and show that they survive in the presence of density-dens…
We study dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems under periodic driving. We consider a driving protocol in which the Hamiltonian is switched between two different operators periodically in time. The eigenvalue problem of the associated Floquet operator maps onto an effective hopping problem in energy space. Using the effective model, we establish conditions on the spectral properties of the two Hamiltonians for the system to localize in energy space. We find that ergodic systems always delocalize in energy space and heat up to infinite temperature, for both local and global driving. In …
An interacting system subjected to a strong linear potential can host a many-body localized (MBL) phase when being slightly perturbed. This so-called Wannier-Stark or `tilted-field' MBL phase inherits many properties from the well-investigated disordered MBL phase, and provides an alternative route to experimentally engineer interacting localized systems without quenched disorder. In this work, we investigate the dynamics of entanglement in a Wannier-Stark MBL system coupled to a dephasing environment. As an accessible entanglement proxy, we use the third Rényi negativity $R_3$, which reduces …
The emergent integrability of the many-body localized phase is naturally understood in terms of localized quasiparticles. As a result, the occupations of the one-particle density matrix in eigenstates show a Fermi-liquid-like discontinuity. Here we show that in the steady state reached at long times after a global quench from a perfect density-wave state, this occupation discontinuity is absent, reminiscent of a Fermi liquid at a finite temperature, while the full occupation function remains strongly nonthermal. We discuss how one can understand this as a consequence of the local structure of …
We propose a numerical method for explicitly constructing a complete set of local integrals of motion (LIOM) and definitely show the existence of LIOM for strongly many-body localized systems. The method combines exact diagonalization and nonlinear minimization, and gradually deforms the LIOM for the noninteracting case to those for the interacting case. By using this method we find that for strongly disordered and weakly interacting systems, there are two characteristic lengths in the LIOM. The first one is governed by disorder and is of Anderson-localization nature. The second one is induced…
The Loschmidt echo, defined as the overlap between quantum wave function evolved with different Hamiltonians, quantifies the sensitivity of quantum dynamics to perturbations and is often used as a probe of quantum chaos. In this work we consider the behavior of the Loschmidt echo in the many body localized phase, which is characterized by emergent local integrals of motion, and provides a generic example of non-ergodic dynamics. We demonstrate that the fluctuations of the Loschmidt echo decay as a power law in time in the many-body localized phase, in contrast to the exponential decay in few-b…
We argue that the a.c. conductivity $σ(ω)$ in the many-body localized phase is a power law of frequency $ω$ at low frequency: specifically, $σ(ω) \sim ω^α$ with the exponent $α$ approaching 1 at the phase transition to the thermal phase, and asymptoting to 2 deep in the localized phase. We identify two separate mechanisms giving rise to this power law: deep in the localized phase, the conductivity is dominated by rare resonant pairs of configurations; close to the transition, the dominant contributions are rare regions that are locally critical or in the thermal phase. We present numerical evi…
Anomalous mobility edges and extended-localized transition in a quasiperiodic emitter-cavity array
School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering & Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ludong University（鲁东大学物理与光电工程学院暨理论物理研究所）；Center for Quantum Sciences, Northeast Normal University（东北师范大学量子科学中心）
We study the properties of excited states in one-dimensional many-body localized (MBL) systems using a matrix product state algorithm. First, the method is tested for a large disordered non-interacting system, where for comparison we compute a quasi-exact reference solution via a Monte Carlo sampling of the single-particle levels. Thereafter, we present extensive data obtained for large interacting systems of L~100 sites and large bond dimensions chi~1700, which allows us to quantitatively analyze the scaling behavior of the entanglement S in the system. The MBL phase is characterized by a log…
Using numerically exact methods we study transport in an interacting spin chain which for sufficiently strong spatially constant electric field is expected to experience Stark many-body localization. We show that starting from a generic initial state, a spin-excitation remains localized only up to a finite delocalization time, which depends exponentially on the size of the system and the strength of the electric field. This suggests that bona fide Stark many-body localization occurs only in the thermodynamic limit. We also demonstrate that the transient localization in a finite system and for …
A key property of many-body localization, the localization of quantum particles in systems with both quenched disorder and interactions, is the area law entanglement of even highly excited eigenstates of many-body localized Hamiltonians. Matrix Product States (MPS) can be used to efficiently represent low entanglement (area law) wave functions in one dimension. An important application of MPS is the widely used Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm for finding ground states of one dimensional Hamiltonians. Here, we describe two algorithms, the Shift and Invert MPS (SIMPS) and e…
Tensor networks are a powerful formalism for transforming one set of degrees of freedom to another. They have been heavily used in analyzing the geometry of bulk/boundary correspondence in conformal field theories. Here we develop a tensor-network version of the Wilson-Wegner Renormalization Group Flow equations to efficiently generate a unitary tensor network which diagonalizes many-body localized Hamiltonians. Treating this unitary tensor network as a bulk geometry, we find this emergent geometry corresponds to the shredded horizon picture: the circumference of the network shrinks exponentia…
