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arXiv:2012.00777 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Characterizing many-body localization via exact disorder-averaged quantum noise

Michael Sonner, Alessio Lerose, Dmitry A. Abanin

Published Jan 31, 2022• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Systems with quenched disorder host fascinating dynamical phases including many-body localization. Theoretical description of such phases proves challenging since it requires disorder-averaging over many configurations, and very rare configurations may have an important effect. Here, the authors introduce a new method, based on the Feynman-Vernon influence functional, that allows one to directly access the disorder-averaged dynamics of quantum spin chains. This formulation provides a starting point for describing the many-body localization transition using variational and analytical techniques.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.105.l020203

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Systems with quenched disorder host fascinating dynamical phases including many-body localization. Theoretical description of such phases proves challenging since it requires disorder-averaging over many configurations, and very rare configurations may have an important effect. Here, the authors introduce a new method, based on the Feynman-Vernon influence functional, that allows one to directly access the disorder-averaged dynamics of quantum spin chains. This formulation provides a starting point for describing the many-body localization transition using variational and analytical techniques.
We study the transitions between ergodic and many-body localized phases in spin systems, subject to quenched disorder, including the Heisenberg chain and the central spin model. In both cases systems with common spin lengths 1/21/21/2 and 1 are investigated via exact numerical diagonalization and random matrix techniques. Particular attention is paid to the sample-to-sample variance ${({\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{s}r)}^{2}$ of the averaged consecutive-gap ratio $\ensuremath{\langle}r\ensuremath{\rangle}$ for different disorder realizations. For both types of systems and spin lengths we find a maximum in ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}}_{s}r$ as a function of disorder strength, accompanied by an inflection point of $\ensuremath{\langle}r\ensuremath{\rangle}$, signaling the transition from ergodicity to many-body localization. The critical disorder strength is found to be somewhat smaller than the values reported in the recent literature. Further information about the transitions can be gained from the probability distribution of expectation values within a given disorder realization.
This paper focuses on developing a new algorithm (En-DMRG) for obtaining highly excited states of disordered and strongly interacting spin systems. This line of research is stimulated by the growing interest in understanding the many-body localized (MBL) state, which emerges in disordered interacting systems at high energy densities through a disorder-driven dynamic phase transition. By studying the one-dimensional Heisenberg spin chain (with up to 72 spins) in a random field, the authors demonstrate the accuracy of the method in obtaining energy eigenstates and the corresponding statistical results of the quantum system in the MBL phase. The method presented in this work has the potential to be applicable in a variety of quantum statistical physics problems, possibly including the MBL phase in higher dimensions.
We introduce an analytic approach to many-body localization (MBL) in random spin chains. We consider MBL within a first quantized framework where it becomes a localization phenomenon in the high-dimensional lattice defined by the Hilbert space of the clean system. Designed in analogy with the field-theory description of single particle localization, our approach describes wave package propagation on that lattice after a disorder average has been performed and the system is controlled by only a few universal parameters. We discuss the stability of an ergodic weak disorder and a localized strong disorder phase, respectively, and demonstrate that the latter is protected by mechanisms which put MBL outside the universality class of Anderson localization.
Eigenstates of quantum many-body systems are often used to define phases of matter in and out of equilibrium; however, experimentally accessing highly excited eigenstates is a challenging task, calling for alternative strategies to dynamically probe nonequilibrium phases. In this work, we characterize the dynamical properties of a disordered spin chain, focusing on the spin-glass regime. Using tensor-network simulations, we observe oscillatory behavior of local expectation values and bipartite entanglement entropy. We explain these oscillations deep in the many-body localized spin-glass regime via a simple theoretical model. From perturbation theory, we predict the timescales up to which our analytical description is valid and confirm it with numerical simulations. Finally, we study the correlation length dynamics, which, after a long-time plateau, resume growing in line with renormalization group (RG) expectations. Our work suggests that RG predictions can be quantitatively tested against numerical simulations and experiments, potentially enabling microscopic descriptions of dynamical phases in large systems.
Considerable evidence supports the existence of many-body localization (MBL) phase transitions, although accurately determining the critical disorder intensity remains challenging due to significant instabilities in system size within the examined parameters. In this study, we employ the global quantum discord (GQD) to investigate MBL phase transitions and identify the critical points of the quantum Ising spin chain subjected to both disordered interacting and disordered external fields. Our analysis of GQD demonstrates its effectiveness in identifying the critical points between the thermal and the MBL phases. We further utilize the temporal evolution of GQD to comprehensively explore the characteristics of MBL phase transitions in the disordered quantum Ising spin chain. Our findings suggest that MBL phase transitions adhere to the same generality category based on the scaling analysis. Additionally, we investigate the effects of these examined parameters on the GQD and its dynamics and use them to estimate the critical points.
We study the unitary dynamics and the thermalization properties of free-fermion-like Hamiltonians after a sudden quantum quench, extending the results of S. Ziraldo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 247205 (2012)]. With analytical and numerical arguments, we show that the existence of a stationary state and its description with a generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) depend crucially on the observable considered (local versus extensive) and on the localization properties of the final Hamiltonian. We present results on two one-dimensional (1D) models, the disordered 1D fermionic chain with long-range hopping and the disordered Ising/XYXYXY spin chain. We analytically prove that, while time averages of one-body operators are perfectly reproduced by GGE (even for finite-size systems, if time integrals are extended beyond revivals), time averages of many-body operators might show clear deviations from the GGE prediction when disorder-induced localization of the eigenstates is at play.