Disorder free many-body localization (MBL) can occur in interacting systems that can dynamically generate their own disorder. We address the thermal-MBL phase transition of two isotropic Heisenberg spin chains that are quasiperiodically coupled to each other. The spin chains are incommensurate and are coupled through a short-range exchange interaction of the X X Z type that decays exponentially with the distance. Using exact diagonalization, matrix product states, and a density matrix renormalization group, we calculate the time evolution of the entanglement entropy at long times and extract the inverse participation ratio in the thermodynamic limit. We show that this system has a robust MBL phase. We establish the phase diagram with the onset of MBL as a function of the interchain exchange coupling and of the incommensuration between the spin chains. The Ising limit of the interchain interaction optimizes the stability of the MBL phase over a broad range of incommensurations above a given critical exchange coupling. Incorporation of interchain spin flips significantly enhances entanglement between the spin chains and produces delocalization, favoring a prethermal phase whose entanglement entropy grows logarithmically with time. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Disorder free many-body localization (MBL) can occur in interacting systems that can dynamically generate their own disorder. We address the thermal-MBL phase transition of two isotropic Heisenberg spin chains that are quasiperiodically coupled to each other. The spin chains are incommensurate and are coupled through a short-range exchange interaction of the X X Z type that decays exponentially with the distance. Using exact diagonalization, matrix product states, and a density matrix renormalization group, we calculate the time evolution of the entanglement entropy at long times and extract the inverse participation ratio in the thermodynamic limit. We show that this system has a robust MBL phase. We establish the phase diagram with the onset of MBL as a function of the interchain exchange coupling and of the incommensuration between the spin chains. The Ising limit of the interchain interaction optimizes the stability of the MBL phase over a broad range of incommensurations above a given critical exchange coupling. Incorporation of interchain spin flips significantly enhances entanglement between the spin chains and produces delocalization, favoring a prethermal phase whose entanglement entropy grows logarithmically with time. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
In this paper, we theoretically investigate the many-body localization properties of one-dimensional Ising spin-1 chains by using the methods of exact matrix diagonalization. We compare it with the MBL properties of the Ising spin-1/2 chains. The results indicate that the one-dimensional Ising spin-1 chains can also undergo MBL phase transition. There are various forms of disorder, and we compare the effects of different forms of quasi-disorder and random disorder on many-body localization in this paper. First, we calculate the exctied-state fidelity to study the MBL phase transtion. By changing the form of the quasi-disorder, we study the MBL transition of the system with different forms of quasi-disorder and compare them with those of the random disordered system. The results show that both random disorder and quasi-disorder can cause the MBL phase transition in the one-dimensional Ising spin-1 chains. In order to study the effect of spin interactions, we compare Ising spin-1 chains and spin-1/2 chains with the next-nearest-neighbour(N-N) two-body interactions and the next-next-nearest-neighbour (N-N-N)interactions. The results show that the critical point increases with the addition of the interaction. Then we study the dynamical properties of the model by the dynamical behavior of diagonal entropy (DE), local magnetization and the time evolution of fidelity to further prove the occurrence of MBL phase transition in the disordered Ising spin-1 chains with the (N-N) coupling term and distinguish the ergodic phase (thermal phase) and the many-body localized phase. Lastly, we delve into the impact of periodic driving on one-dimensional Ising spin-1 chains. And we compare it with the results obtained from the Ising spin-1/2 chains. It shows that periodic driving can cause Ising spin-1 chains and Ising spin-1/2 chains to occur the MBL transition.
We investigate the many-body localization (MBL) transition in the quantum Ising model with long-range interactions. Unlike spin chains with short-range interactions, where the MBL transition point remains elusive due to strong finite-size effects and local fluctuations, long-range interactions suppress such fluctuations and enable clearer signatures of critical behavior. Using exact results from a related Bethe lattice localization problem, we estimate the MBL threshold within logarithmic accuracy and find consistency with exact diagonalization. Although the critical disorder diverges in the thermodynamic limit, our results demonstrate that the critical regime can still be probed and highlight the relevance of this model to systems with dipole-dipole, elastic, or indirect exchange interactions.
We analyze the finite-size scaling of the average gap ratio and the entanglement entropy across the many-body localization (MBL) transition in one dimensional Heisenberg spin chain with quasiperiodic (QP) potential. By using the recently introduced cost-function approach, we compare different scenarios for the transition using exact diagonalization of systems up to 22 lattice sites. Our findings suggest that the MBL transition in the QP Heisenberg chain belongs to the class of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, the same as in the case of uniformly disordered systems as advocated in recent studies. Moreover, we observe that the critical disorder strength shows a clear sublinear drift with the system size as compared to the linear drift seen in random disordered models, suggesting that the finite-size effects in the MBL transition for the QP systems are less severe than that in the random disordered scenario. Moreover, deep in the ergodic regime, we find an unexpected double-peak structure of distribution of on-site magnetizations that can be traced back to the strong correlations present in the QP potential.
Abstract The connection between entanglement dynamics and non-equilibrium statistics in isolated many-body quantum systems has been established both theoretically and experimentally. Many-body localization (MBL), a phenomenon where interacting particles in disordered (i.e. random) chains fail to thermalize, exemplifies this connection. However, the systematic proof of critical phenomena such as MBL remains challenging due to the lack of robust methods for analyzing many-body entanglement dynamics. In this paper, we identify MBL through quasi-periodic dynamics in the entanglement evolution of subsystems in a disordered Heisenberg chain. This new form of characterizing MBL, through stable quasi-periodic dynamics of entanglement-where ‘stable’ means they persist in the thermodynamic limit—concretely distinguishes between two competing scenarios: fully localized behavior of subsystems or slowly, exponentially slow in disorder, thermalizing subsystems—a heated controversy in the literature. Utilizing perturbation theory, we derive the entanglement dynamics of single spins through an infinite perturbative series, while also modeling rare Griffiths regions (locally thermal inclusions). Our results prove that in regimes of sufficiently strong disorder, the entanglement evolution of individual subsystems remains quasi-periodic in the thermodynamic limit, thereby providing concrete evidence for the stability of MBL dynamics in disordered Heisenberg chains. This behavior contrasts with the widely reported logarithmic growth of subsystem entanglement in the MBL phase. We show that the logarithmic growth observed in prior studies arises from statistical ensemble averaging, which is prohibited due to the intrinsic non-ergodic dynamics characteristic of MBL systems, rooted in their quasi-periodic features.
Many-body localization (MBL) is an intriguing physical phenomenon that arises from the interplay of interaction and disorder, allowing quantum systems to prevent thermalization. In this study, we investigate the MBL properties of the fully frustrated Heisenberg spin-1/2 ladder model with next-nearest-neighbor hopping interaction along the leg direction and compare it with the Heisenberg spin-1/2 single-chain model with next-nearest-neighbor hopping interaction. We explore the MBL transition using random matrix theory and study the characteristics of entanglement entropy and its variance. Our results show that for the single-chain model, the critical point w1∼ 7.5 ± 0.5, whereas for the frustrated ladder model, w2∼ 10.5 ± 0.5. Moreover, we observe the existence of a many-body mobility edge in the frustrated ladder model. We also investigate the dynamical properties of the frustrated ladder model and identify the logarithmic growth of entanglement entropy, high fidelity of initial information, and magnetic localization phenomenon in the localized phase. Finally, we explore the finite-size scaling of the two models. Our findings suggest that interpreting MBL transition as a continuous second-order phase transition yields a better scaling solution than the Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition for our two models, and this difference is more pronounced in the frustrated ladder model compared with the single-chain model.
Previous studies reveal a crucial effect of symmetries on the properties of a single particle moving in a disorder potential.More recently, a phenomenon of many-body localization (MBL) has been attracting much theoretical and experimental interest.MBL systems are characterized by the emergence of quasilocal integrals of motion and by the area-law entanglement entropy scaling of its eigenstates.In this paper, we investigate the effect of a non-Abelian SUð2Þ symmetry on the dynamical properties of a disordered Heisenberg chain.While SUð2Þ symmetry is inconsistent with conventional MBL, a new nonergodic regime is possible.In this regime, the eigenstates exhibit faster than area-law, but still strongly subthermal, scaling of the entanglement entropy.Using extensive exact diagonalization simulations, we establish that this nonergodic regime is indeed realized in the strongly disordered Heisenberg chains.We use the realspace renormalization group (RSRG) to construct approximate excited eigenstates by tree tensor networks and demonstrate the accuracy of this procedure for systems of sizes up to L ¼ 26.As the effective disorder strength is decreased, a crossover to the thermalizing phase occurs.To establish the ultimate fate of the nonergodic regime in the thermodynamic limit, we develop a novel approach for describing many-body processes that are usually neglected by the RSRG.This approach is capable of describing systems of size L ≈ 2000.We characterize the resonances that arise due to such processes, finding that they involve an ever-growing number of spins as the system size is increased.Crucially, the probability of finding resonances grows with the system's size.Even at strong disorder, we can identify a large length scale beyond which resonances proliferate.Presumably, this proliferation would eventually drive the system to a thermalizing phase.However, the extremely long thermalization timescales indicate that a broad nonergodic regime will be observable experimentally.Our study demonstrates that, similar to the case of single-particle localization, symmetries control dynamical properties of disordered, many-body systems.The approach introduced here provides a versatile tool for describing a broad range of disordered manybody systems, well beyond sizes accessible in previous studies.