This work characterizes many-body localization in disordered quantum systems with long-range couplings. Using a flow equation approach, the authors construct the local integrals of motion and study the nonequilibrium dynamics following a quantum quench.
The interplay between interactions and quenched disorder can result in rich dynamical quantum phenomena far from equilibrium, particularly when many-body localization prevents the system from full thermalization. With the aim of tackling this interesting regime, here we develop a semianalytical flow equation approach to study the time evolution of strongly disordered interacting quantum systems. We apply this technique to a prototype model of interacting spinless fermions in a random on-site potential in both one and two dimensions. Key results include (i) an explicit construction of the local integrals of motion that characterize the many-body localized phase in one dimension, ultimately connecting the microscopic model to phenomenological descriptions, (ii) calculation of these quantities in two dimensions, and (iii) an investigation of the real-time dynamics in the localized phase which reveals the crucial role of l-bit interactions for enhancing dephasing and relaxation.
We study theoretical 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 localization without any artificial source of disorder remains stable upon inclusion of long-range interactions.
The many-body localization (MBL) transition is a quantum phase transition involving highly excited eigenstates of a disordered quantum many-body Hamiltonian, which evolve from “extended/ergodic" (exhibiting extensive entanglement entropies and fluctuations) to “localized" (exhibiting area-law scaling of entanglement and fluctuations). The MBL transition can be driven by the strength of disorder in a given spectral range, or by the energy density at fixed disorder – if the system possesses a many-body mobility edge. Here we propose to explore the latter mechanism by using “quantum-quench spectroscopy", namely via quantum quenches of variable width which prepare the state of the system in a superposition of eigenstates of the Hamiltonian within a controllable spectral region. Studying numerically a chain of interacting spinless fermions in a quasi-periodic potential, we argue that this system has a many-body mobility edge; and we show that its existence translates into a clear dynamical transition in the time evolution immediately following a quench in the strength of the quasi-periodic potential, as well as a transition in the scaling properties of the quasi-stationary state at long times. Our results suggest a practical scheme for the experimental observation of many-body mobility edges using cold-atom setups.
Inspired by recent experiments on many-body localized systems coupled to an environment, we apply a Flow Equation method to study the problem of a disorder chain of spinless fermions, coupled via density-density interactions to a second clean chain of spinless fermions. In particular, we focus on the conditions for the onset of a many-body localized phase in the clean sector of our model by proximity to the dirty one. We find that a many-body localization proximity effect in the clean component is established when the density of dirty fermions exceeds a threshold value. From the flow equation method we find that, similar to many-body localization in a single chain, the many-body localization proximity effect is also described by an extensive set of local integrals of motion. Furthermore, by tuning the geometry of the inter-chain couplings, we show that the dynamics of the model is ruled, on intermediate time scales, by an emergent set of quasi-conserved charges.
We present a theoretical and numerical study of the many-body localization (MBL) transition and entanglement dynamics in disordered spin-fermion chains with long-range interactions. Moving beyond standard single-particle pictures, we investigate the breakdown of ergodicity and thermalization by constructing an effective Hamiltonian via iterative Schrieffer-Wolff transformations and utilizing the local integrals of motion (l-bits) formalism. Our analysis examines entanglement entropy growth, level spacing statistics, and the transition from Wigner-Dyson to Poisson statistics. Furthermore, we derive analytical estimates for the dephasing rate scaling as a function of long-range potential parameters and validate the theoretical findings using exact diagonalization (ED) numerical protocols with finite-size scaling.
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.