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 provides an estimate for the many-body localization–delocalization transition. Finally, we discuss how the properties of the operator expansion for the integrals of motion imply the presence or absence of a finite temperature transition.
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 on-site potentials. Our scheme of consecutive displacement transformations can be used to study many-body localization in any dimension, as well as disorder-free Hamiltonians.
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 the part of the operator that is associated with interactions. Equipped with these data we perform a finite-size scaling analysis of the quasiperiodic MBL transition. Our results suggest that the quasiperiodic MBL transition occurs at considerably stronger quasiperiodic modulations and has a larger correlation-length critical exponent than previous studies had found.
We consider the one-dimensional lattice model of interacting fermions with disorder studied previously by Oganesyan and Huse [Phys. Rev. B 75, 155111 (2007)]. To characterize a possible many-body localization transition as a function of the disorder strength
W, we use an exact renormalization procedure in configuration space that generalizes the Aoki real-space renormalization procedure for Anderson localization one-particle models [H. Aoki, J. Phys. C 13, 3369 (1980)]. We focus on the statistical properties of the renormalized hopping
VL between two configurations separated by a distance
L in configuration space (distance being defined as the minimal number of elementary moves to go from one configuration to the other). Our numerical results point toward the existence of a many-body localization transition at a finite disorder strength
Wc. In the localized phase
W>Wc, the typical renormalized hopping ${V}_{L}^{typ}\ensuremath{\equiv}{e}^{\overline{\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{L}}}$ decays exponentially in
L as $(\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{L}^{typ})\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}\frac{L}{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{loc}}$ and the localization length diverges as ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{loc}(W)\ensuremath{\sim}{(W\ensuremath{-}{W}_{c})}^{\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{loc}}$ with a critical exponent of order ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{loc}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.45$. In the delocalized phase
W<Wc, the renormalized hopping remains a finite random variable as $L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ and the typical asymptotic value ${V}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{typ}\ensuremath{\equiv}{e}^{\overline{\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}}}$ presents an essential singularity $(\text{ln}\text{ }{V}_{\ensuremath{\infty}}^{typ})\ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{-}{({W}_{c}\ensuremath{-}W)}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\kappa}}$ with an exponent of order $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\sim}1.4$. Finally, we show that this analysis in configuration space is compatible with the localization properties of the simplest two-point correlation function in real space.
Local integrals of motion play a central role in the understanding of many-body localization in many-body quantum systems in one dimension subject to a random external potential, but the question of how these local integrals of motion change in a deterministic quasiperiodic potential is one that has received significantly less attention. Here we develop a powerful new implementation of the continuous unitary transform formalism and use this method to directly compute both the effective Hamiltonian and the local integrals of motion for many-body quantum systems subject to a quasiperiodic potential. We show that the effective interactions between local integrals of motion retain a strong fingerprint of the underlying quasiperiodic potential, exhibiting sharp features at distances associated with the incommensurate wavelength used to generate the potential. Furthermore, the local integrals of motion themselves may be expressed in terms of an operator expansion which allows us to estimate the critical strength of quasiperiodic potential required to lead to a localization/delocalization transition, by means of a finite size scaling analysis.
Disorder and interactions can lead to the breakdown of statistical mechanics in quantum systems by transitioning to a many-body localized (MBL) phase. The thermal-to-MBL transition occurs by either increasing the amount of disorder present in a system or by decreasing its energy until it crosses the so-called mobility edge. The authors construct a set of approximate integrals of motion that are quasi-universal across the energy spectrum and, thus, across the mobility edge, too. Interestingly, MBL eigenstates under the mobility edge are aware of the existence of a thermal phase at a higher energy. The phase diagram is probed close to the transition and in the MBL phase. One finds a universal distribution of the strength of the couplings of the integrals of motion in the strong disorder limit.
Many-body localization (MBL) is a novel prototype of ergodicity breaking due to the emergence of local integrals of motion (LIOMs) in a disordered interacting quantum system. To better understand the role played by the existence of such LIOMs, we explore and study some of their structural properties across the MBL transition. We first consider a one-dimensional XXZ spin chain in a disordered magnetic field and introduce and implement a nonperturbative, fast, and accurate method of constructing LIOMs. In contrast to already existing methods, our scheme allows obtaining LIOMs not only in the deep MBL phase but, rather, near the transition point too. Then, we take the matrix representation of LIOM operators as an adjacency matrix of a directed graph whose elements describe the connectivity of ordered eigenbasis in the Hilbert space. Our cluster-size analysis for this graph shows that the MBL transition coincides with a percolation transition in the Hilbert space. By performing finite-size scaling, we compare the critical disorder and correlation exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}$ both in the presence and absence of interactions. Finally, we also discuss how the distribution of diagonal elements of LIOM operators in a typical cluster signals the transition.