We study the delocalization dynamics of interacting disordered hard-core bosons for quasi-1D and 2D geometries, with system sizes and time scales comparable to state-of-the-art experiments. The results are strikingly similar to the 1D case, with slow, subdiffusive dynamics featuring power-law decay. From the freezing of this decay we infer the critical disorder $W_c(L, d)$ as a function of length $L$ and width $d$. In the quasi-1D case $W_c$ has a finite large-$L$ limit at fixed $d$, which increases strongly with $d$. In the 2D case $W_c(L,L)$ grows with $L$. The results are consistent with the avalanche picture of the many-body localization transition.
We analyze the role of spectral diffusion in the problem of many-body delocalization in quantum dots and in extended systems. The spectral diffusion parametrically enhances delocalization, modifying the scaling of the delocalization threshold with the interaction coupling constant.
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…
We study many-body localization (MBL) and delocalization from the perspective of integrals of motion (IOMs). MBL can be understood phenomenologically through the existence of macroscopically many localized IOMs. However, IOMs exist for all many-body systems, and non-localized IOMs determine properties on the ergodic side of the MBL transition too. Here we explore their properties using our method of displacement transformations. We show how different quantities can be calculated using the IOMs as an expansion in the number of operators. For all values of disorder the typical IOMs are localized…
We study the ergodic properties of excited states in a model of interacting fermions in quasi-one-dimensional chains subjected to a random vector potential. In the noninteracting limit, we show that arbitrarily small values of this complex off-diagonal disorder trigger localization for the whole spectrum; the divergence of the localization length in the single-particle basis is characterized by a critical exponent $ν$ which depends on the energy density being investigated. When short-range interactions are included, the localization is lost, and the system is ergodic regardless of the magnitud…
We investigate Anderson localization of two particles moving in a two-dimensional (2D) disordered lattice and coupled by contact interactions. Based on transmission-amplitude calculations for relatively large strip-shaped grids, we find that all pair states are localized in lattices of infinite size. In particular, we show that previous claims of an interaction-induced mobility edge are biased by severe finite-size effects. The localization length of a pair with zero total energy exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the interaction strength, characterized by an exponential enhance…
We study quench dynamics in an interacting spin chain with a quasi-periodic on-site field, known as the interacting Aubry-André model of many-body localization. Using the time-dependent variational principle, we assess the late-time behavior for chains up to $L = 50$. We find that the choice of periodicity $Φ$ of the quasi-periodic field influences the dynamics. For $Φ= (\sqrt{5}-1)/2$ (the inverse golden ratio) and interaction $Δ= 1$, the model most frequently considered in the literature, we obtain the critical disorder $W_c = 4.8 \pm 0.5$ in units where the non-interacting transition is at …
We study the dynamical melting of "hot" one-dimensional many-body localized systems. As disorder is weakened below a critical value these non-thermal quantum glasses melt via a continuous dynamical phase transition into classical thermal liquids. By accounting for collective resonant tunneling processes, we derive and numerically solve an effective model for such quantum-to-classical transitions and compute their universal critical properties. Notably, the classical thermal liquid exhibits a broad regime of anomalously slow sub-diffusive equilibration dynamics and energy transport. The subdiff…
The localization in a disordered system of $N$ interacting spins coupled by the long-range anisotropic interaction $1/R^α$ is investigated using a finite size scaling in a $d=1$ -dimensional system for $N=8, 10, 12, 14$. The results supports the absence of localization in the infinite system at $α<2d$ and a scaling of a critical energy disordering $W_{c} \propto N^{2d-α}$ in agreement with the analytical theory suggesting the energy delocalization in the subset of interacting resonant pairs of spins as a precursor of the many-body delocalization.The spin relaxation rate $k$ dependence on disor…
Statistical delocalization in the Anyonic Aubry-André model
Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)（多诺斯蒂亚国际物理中心）；University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)（巴斯克大学）；Technische Universität Berlin（柏林工业大学）；IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science（伊克尔巴斯基奎，巴斯克科学基金会）
Many-body localization (MBL) provides a mechanism to avoid thermalization in many-body quantum systems. Here, we show that an {\it emergent} symmetry can protect a state from MBL. Specifically, we propose a $\Z_2$ symmetric model with nonlocal interactions, which has an analytically known, SU(2) invariant, critical ground state. At large disorder strength all states at finite energy density are in a glassy MBL phase, while the lowest energy states are not. These do, however, localize when a perturbation destroys the emergent SU(2) symmetry. The model also provides an example of MBL in the pres…
Closed generic quantum many-body systems may fail to thermalize under certain conditions even after long times, a phenomenon called many-body localization (MBL). Numerous studies support the stability of the MBL phase in strongly disordered one-dimensional systems. However, the situation is much less clear when a small part of the system is ergodic, a scenario which also has important implications for the existence of many-body localization in higher dimensions. Here we address this question experimentally using a large-scale quantum simulator of ultracold bosons in a two-dimensional optical l…
The quantum kicked rotor is well-known for displaying dynamical (Anderson) localization. It has recently been shown that a periodically kicked Tonks gas will always localize and converge to a finite energy steady-state. This steady-state has been described as being effectively thermal with an effective temperature that depends on the parameters of the kick. Here we study a generalization to a quasi-periodic driving with three frequencies which, without interactions, has a metal-insulator Anderson transition. We show that a quasi-periodically kicked Tonks gas goes through a dynamical many-body …
Many-body localization in a disordered system of interacting spins coupled by the long-range interaction $1/R^α$ is investigated combining analytical theory considering resonant interactions and a finite size scaling of exact numerical solutions with a number of spins $N$. The numerical results for a one-dimensional system are consistent with the general expectations of analytical theory for $d$-dimensional system including the absence of localization in the infinite system at $α<2d$ and a universal scaling of a critical energy disordering $W_{c} \propto N^{\frac{2d-α}{d}}$. %The finite size e…
Anderson localization1 in a random system is sensitive to a distance dependence of the excitation transfer amplitude V(r). If V(r) decreases with the distance r slower than 1/r^d in a d-dimensional system then all excitations are delocalized at arbitrarily strong disordering, due to the resonant interaction of far separated quantum states (Fig. 1). At finite temperature T>0 the density of excitations is finite and they can influence each other by means of their interaction. Many body excitations involving simultaneous transitions of several single particle excitations create additional channel…
We consider d dimensional systems which are localized in the absence of interactions, but whose single particle (SP) localization length diverges near a discrete set of (single-particle) energies, with critical exponent ν. This class includes disordered systems with intrinsic- or symmetry-protected- topological bands, such as disordered integer quantum Hall insulators. In the absence of interactions, such marginally localized systems exhibit anomalous properties intermediate between localized and extended including: vanishing DC conductivity but sub-diffusive dynamics, and fractal entanglement…
We investigate the possibility of Many-Body Localization in translation invariant Hamiltonian systems, which was recently brought up by several authors. A key feature of Many-Body Localized disordered systems is recovered, namely the fact that resonant spots are rare and far-between. However, we point out that resonant spots are mobile, unlike in models with strong quenched disorder, and that these mobile spots constitute a possible mechanism for delocalization, albeit possibly only on very long timescales. In some models, this argument for delocalization can be made very explicit in first ord…
We analyze many-body localization (MBL) to delocalization transition in Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model of Ising spin glass (SG) in the presence of a transverse field $Γ$. Based on energy resolved analysis, which is of relevance for a closed quantum system, we show that the quantum SK model has many-body mobility edges separating MBL phase which is non-ergodic and non-thermal from the delocalized phase which is ergodic and thermal. The range of the delocalized regime increases with increase in the strength of $Γ$ and eventually for $Γ$ larger than $Γ_{CP}$ the entire many-body spectrum is d…
We propose a multi-scale diagonalization scheme to study disordered one-dimensional chains, in particular the transition between many-body localization (MBL) and the ergodic phase, expected to be governed by resonant spots. Our scheme focuses on the dichotomy MBL versus {ETH} (eigenstate thermalization hypothesis). We show that a few natural assumptions imply that the system is localized with probability one at criticality. On the ergodic side, delocalization is induced by a quantum avalanche seeded by large ergodic spots, whose size diverges at the transition. On the MBL side, the typical loc…
We explore dynamics of disordered and quasi-periodic interacting lattice models using a self-consistent time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) approximation, accessing both large systems (up to $L = 400$ sites) and very long times (up to $t = 10^5$). We find that, in the $t \to \infty$ limit, the many-body localization (MBL) is always destroyed within the TDHF approximation. At the same time, this approximation provides important information on the long-time character of dynamics in the ergodic side of the MBL transition. Specifically, for one-dimensional (1D) disordered chains, we find slow power…
We consider weakly interacting bosons in a 1D quasiperiodic potential (Aubry-Azbel-Harper model) in the regime where all single-particle states are localized. We show that the interparticle interaction may lead to the many-body delocalization and we obtain the finite-temperature phase diagram. Counterintuitively, in a wide range of parameters the delocalization requires stronger cou- pling as the temperature increases. This means that the system of bosons can undergo a transition from a fluid to insulator (glass) state under heating.
We focus on the many-body eigenstates across a localization-delocalization phase transition. To characterize the robustness of the eigenstates, we introduce the eigenstate overlaps $\mathcal{O}$ with respect to the different boundary conditions. In the ergodic phase, the average of eigenstate overlaps $\bar{\mathcal{O}}$ is exponential decay with the increase of the system size indicating the fragility of its eigenstates, and this can be considered as an eigenstate-version butterfly effect of the chaotic systems. For localized systems, $\bar{\mathcal{O}}$ is almost size-independent showing the…
Characterizing the delocalization transition in closed quantum systems with a many-body localized phase is a key open question in the field of nonequilibrium physics. We exploit that localization of particles as realized in Anderson and standard many-body localization (MBL) implies Fock-space localization in single-particle basis sets characterized by a real-space index. Using a recently introduced quantitative measure for Fock-space localization computed from the density distributions, the occupation distance, we systematically study its scaling behavior across delocalozation transitions and …
We propose a new approach to probing ergodicity and its breakdown in quantum many-body systems based on their response to a local perturbation. We study the distribution of matrix elements of a local operator between the system's eigenstates, finding a qualitatively different behaviour in the many-body localized (MBL) and ergodic phases. To characterize how strongly a local perturbation modifies the eigenstates, we introduce the parameter ${\cal G}(L)=\langle \ln (V_{nm}/δ) \rangle$, which represents a disorder-averaged ratio of a typical matrix element of a local operator $V$ to the energy le…
We theoretically study the quench dynamics for an isolated Heisenberg spin chain with a random on-site magnetic field, which is one of the paradigmatic models of a many-body localization transition. We use the time-dependent variational principle as applied to matrix product states, which allows us to controllably study chains of a length up to $L=100$ spins, i.e., much larger than $L \simeq 20$ that can be treated via exact diagonalization. For the analysis of the data, three complementary approaches are used: (i) determination of the exponent $β$ which characterizes the power-law decay of th…
Disordered quantum systems undergoing a many-body localization (MBL) transition fail to reach thermal equilibrium under their own dynamics. Distinguishing between asymptotically localized or delocalized dynamics based on numerical results is however nontrivial due to finite-size effects. Numerical linked cluster expansions (NLCE) provide a means to tackle quantum systems directly in the thermodynamic limit, but are challenging for models without translational invariance. Here, we demonstrate that NLCE provide a powerful tool to explore MBL by simulating quench dynamics in disordered spin-$1/2$…
While there are well established methods to study delocalization transitions of single particles in random systems, it remains a challenging problem how to characterize many body delocalization transitions. Here, we use a generalized real-space renormalization group technique to study the anisotropic Heisenberg model with long-range interactions, decaying with a power $α$, which are generated by placing spins at random positions along the chain. This method permits a large-scale finite-size scaling analysis. We examine the full distribution function of the excitation energy gap from the ground…
Anderson and dynamical localization have been experimentally observed with ultra-cold atomic matter. Feshbach resonances are used to efficiently control the strength of interactions between atoms. This allows to study the delocalization effect of interactions for localized wave packets. The delocalization processes are subdiffusive and slow, thereby limiting the quantitative experimental and numerical analysis. We propose an elegant solution of the problem by proper ramping the interaction strength in time. We demonstrate that subdiffusion is speeded up to normal diffusion for interacting diso…
We study the impact of quenched disorder on the dynamics of locally constrained quantum spin chains, that describe 1D arrays of Rydberg atoms in both frozen (Ising-type) and dressed (XY-type) regime. Performing large-scale numerical experiments, we observe no trace of many-body localization even at large disorder. Analyzing the role of quenched disorder terms in constrained systems we show that they act in two, distinct and competing ways: as an on-site disorder term for the basic excitations of the system, and as an interaction between excitations. The two contributions are of the same order,…
We study the spectral statistics of interacting spinless fermions in a two-dimensional disordered lattice. Within a full quantum treatment for small few-particle-systems, we compute the low-energy many-body states numerically. While at weak disorder the interactions reduce spectral correlations and lead to localization, for the case of strong disorder we find that a moderate Coulomb interaction has a delocalizing effect. In addition, we observe a non-universal structure in the level-spacing distribution which we attribute to a mechanism reinforcing spectral correlations taking place in small s…
Motivated by the constrained many-body dynamics, the stability of the localization-delocalization properties to the inclusion of the soft constraints is addressed in random matrix models. These constraints are modeled by correlations in long-ranged hopping with Pearson correlation coefficient different from zero or unity. Counterintuitive robustness of delocalized phases, both ergodic and (multi)fractal, in these models is numerically observed and confirmed by the analytical calculations. First, matrix inversion trick is used to uncover the origin of such robustness. Next, to characterize delo…
This comment is dedicated to the investigation of many-body localization in a quantum Ising model with long-range power law interactions, $r^{-α}$, relevant for a variety of systems ranging from electrons in Anderson insulators to spin excitations in chains of cold atoms. It has been earlier argued [1, 2] that this model obeys the dimensional constraint suggesting the delocalization of all finite temperature states in thermodynamic limit for $α\leq 2d$ in a $d$-dimensional system. This expectation conflicts with the recent numerical studies of the specific interacting spin model in Ref. [3]. T…
Many-body quantum systems typically display fast dynamics and ballistic spreading of information. Here we address the open problem of how slow the dynamics can be after a generic breaking of integrability by local interactions. We develop a method based on degenerate perturbation theory that reveals slow dynamical regimes and delocalization processes in general translation invariant models, along with accurate estimates of their delocalization time scales. Our results shed light on the fundamental questions of robustness of quantum integrable systems and the possibility of many-body localizati…
We accurately treat the effect of the double and triple interactions of two-level systems (TLS) in glasses onto the energy delocalization due to the long-range interaction of TLS. Although this work qualitatively reproduces the estimates of our previous work we believe that it is important because in this paper the estimates are done with quantitative accuracy. This work can serve as the important step towards the development of quantitative theory of many-body delocalization due to the long-range interaction. Our study is compared with the recent work by Bodea et al claiming that the interact…
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…
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 …
We investigate dynamical many-body localization and delocalization in an integrable system of periodically-kicked, interacting linear rotors. The Hamiltonian we investigate is linear in momentum, and its Floquet evolution operator is analytically tractable for arbitrary interaction strengths. One of the hallmarks of this model is that depending on certain parameters, it manifest both localization and delocalization in momentum space. We explicitly show that for this model, the energy being bounded at long times is not a sufficient condition for dynamical localization. Besides integrals of moti…
Much has been learned regarding dynamical quantum phase transition (DQPT) due to sudden quenches across quantum critical points in traditional quantum systems. However, not much has been explored when a system undergoes a localization-delocalization transition. Here, we study one dimensional fermionic systems in presence of a quasi-periodic potential, which induces delocalization-localization transition even in 1D. We show signatures of DQPT in the many-body dynamics, when quenching is performed between phases belonging to different universality classes. We investigate how the non-analyticity …
Localization transitions as a function of temperature require a many-body mobility edge in energy, separating localized from ergodic states. We argue that this scenario is inconsistent because local fluctuations into the ergodic phase within the supposedly localized phase can serve as mobile bubbles that induce global delocalization. Such fluctuations inevitably appear with a low but finite density anywhere in any typical state. We conclude that the only possibility for many-body localization to occur are lattice models that are localized at all energies. Building on a close analogy with a mod…
Motivated by the recent experiments that reported signatures of many-body localization of ultracold atoms in optical lattices [M. Schreiber {\it et al.}, Science {\bf 349}, 842 (2015)], we study dynamics of highly excited states in the strongly disordered Hubbard model in one dimension. Owing to the $SU(2)$ spin symmetry, spin degrees of freedom form a delocalized thermal bath with a narrow bandwidth. The spin bath mediates slow particle transport, eventually leading to delocalization of particles. The particle hopping rate is exponentially small in $t/W$ ($t$, $W$ being hopping and disorder s…
The tripartite information is an observable-independent measure for scrambling and delocalization of information. Therefore one can expect that the tripartite information is a good observable-independent indicator for distinguishing between many-body localized and delocalized regimes, which we confirm for the XXZ-chain in a random field. Specifically, we find that the tripartite information signal spreads inside a lightcone that only grows logarithmically in time in the many-body localized regime similar to the entanglement entropy. We also find that the tripartite information eventually reach…
Subjecting a many-body localized system to a time-periodic drive generically leads to delocalization and a transition to ergodic behavior if the drive is sufficiently strong or of sufficiently low frequency. Here we show that a specific drive can have an opposite effect, taking a static delocalized system into the many-body localized phase. We demonstrate this effect using a one-dimensional system of interacting hardcore bosons subject to an oscillating linear potential. The system is weakly disordered, and is ergodic absent the driving. The time-periodic linear potential leads to a suppressio…
Thermalization in many-body systems can be inhibited by the application of a linearly increasing potential, which is known as Stark many-body localization. Here we investigate the fate of this phenomenon on a two-dimensional disorder-free lattice with up to $24 \times 6$ sites. Similar to the one-dimensional case, "density-polarized" regions can act as bottlenecks for transport and thermalization on laboratory timescales. However, compared to the one-dimensional case, a substantially stronger potential gradient is needed to prevent thermalization when an extra spatial dimension is involved. Th…
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…
Many-body localization provides a mechanism to avoid thermalization in isolated interacting quantum systems. The breakdown of thermalization may be complete, when all eigenstates in the many-body spectrum become localized, or partial, when the so-called many-body mobility edge separates localized and delocalized parts of the spectrum. Previously, De Roeck \textit{et al.}[arXiv:1506.01505] suggested a possible instability of the many-body mobility edge in energy density. The local ergodic regions -- so called "bubbles" -- resonantly spread throughout the system, leading to delocalization. In or…
We study many-body localization (MBL) in a one-dimensional system of spinless fermions with a deterministic aperiodic potential in the presence of long-range interactions or long-range hopping. Based on perturbative arguments there is a common belief that MBL can exist only in systems with short-range interactions and short-range hopping. We analyze effects of power-law interactions and power-law hopping, separately, on a system which has all the single particle states localized in the absence of interactions. Since delocalization is driven by proliferation of resonances in the Fock space, we …
We consider the one-dimensional $XX$-model in a quasi-periodic transverse-field described by the Harper potential, which is equivalent to a tight-binding model of spinless fermions with a quasi-periodic chemical potential. For weak transverse field (chemical potential), $h<h_c$, the excitations (fermions) are delocalized, but become localized for $h>h_c$. We study the non-equilibrium relaxation of the system by applying two protocols: a sudden change of $h$ (quench dynamics) and a slow change of $h$ in time (adiabatic dynamics). For a quench into the delocalized (localized) phase, the entangle…
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…
We study effects of disorder on eigenstates of 1D two-component fermions with infinitely strong Hubbard repulsion. We demonstrate that the spin-independent (potential) disorder reduces the problem to the one-particle Anderson localization taking place at arbitrarily weak disorder. In contrast, a random magnetic field can cause reentrant many-body localization-delocalization transitions. Surprisingly weak magnetic field destroys one-particle localization caused by not too strong potential disorder, whereas at much stronger fields the states are many-body localized. We present numerical support …
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 study the many-body localization (MBL) properties of a chain of interacting fermions subject to a quasiperiodic potential such that the non-interacting chain is always delocalized and displays multifractality. Contrary to naive expectations, adding interactions in this systems does not enhance delocalization, and a MBL transition is observed. Due to the local properties of the quasiperiodic potential, the MBL phase presents specific features, such as additional peaks in the density distribution. We furthermore investigate the fate of multifractality in the ergodic phase for low potential va…
We simulate the dynamics of a disordered interacting spin chain subject to a quasi-periodic time-dependent drive, corresponding to a stroboscopic Fibonacci sequence of two distinct Hamiltonians. Exploiting the recursive drive structure, we can efficiently simulate exponentially long times. After an initial transient, the system exhibits a long-lived glassy regime characterized by a logarithmically slow growth of entanglement and decay of correlations analogous to the dynamics at the many-body delocalization transition. Ultimately, at long time-scales, which diverge exponentially for weak or ra…
The transition between ergodic and many-body localized phases is expected to occur via an avalanche mechanism, in which \emph{ergodic bubbles} that arise due to local fluctuations in system properties thermalize their surroundings leading to delocalization of the system, unless the disorder is sufficiently strong to stop this process. We propose an algorithm based on neural networks that allows to detect the ergodic bubbles using experimentally measurable two-site correlation functions. Investigating time evolution of the system, we observe a logarithmic in time growth of the ergodic bubbles i…
We consider a one-dimensional quantum many-body system and investigate how the interplay between interaction and on-site disorder affects spatial localization and quantum correlations. The hopping amplitude is kept constant. To measure localization, we use the number of principal components (NPC), which quantifies the spreading of the system eigenstates over vectors of a given basis set. Quantum correlations are determined by a global entanglement measure $Q$, which quantifies the degree of entanglement of multipartite pure states. Our studies apply analogously to a one-dimensional system of i…
