Localization in the Disordered Fermi-Hubbard Model

William Morong, Wenchao Xu, William McGehee +1 more

Thomas Iadecola, Marko Žnidarič

We demonstrate the existence of exact atypical many-body eigenstates in a class of disordered, interacting one-dimensional quantum systems that includes the Fermi-Hubbard model as a special case. These atypical eigenstates, which generically have finite energy density and are exponentially many in number, are populated by noninteracting excitations. They can exhibit Anderson localization with area-law eigenstate entanglement or, surprisingly, ballistic transport at any disorder strength. These properties differ strikingly from those of typical eigenstates nearby in energy, which we show give rise to diffusive transport as expected in a chaotic quantum system. We discuss how to observe these atypical eigenstates in cold-atom experiments realizing the Fermi-Hubbard model, and comment on the robustness of their properties.

Harmanjeet Kaur, Vinod Ashokan

We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of the disordered one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model with a focus on many-body localization. The system is initialized in a charge-density-wave-state, and its time evolution is analyzed through sublattice imbalance (spin and charge), and bipartite entanglement entropy. A clear crossover from ergodic to non-ergodic behavior is observed with increasing disorder strength. In the weak disorder regime, rapid decay of imbalance and the fast growth of entanglement indicate efficient thermalization. In contrast, a strong disorder leads to persistent imbalance and slow dynamics, signaling the breakdown of ergodicity. The charge and spin sectors exhibit distinct relaxation behavior, providing evidence for partial decoupling between these degrees of freedom. Furthermore, in the interacting regime, the entanglement entropy shows slow logarithmic growth, reflecting the dephasing-driven dynamics characteristic of the many-body localized phase. These results highlight the interplay between disorder and interactions in determining the dynamical properties of the system and establish robust signatures of many-body localization in the Fermi-Hubbard model.

Kanabet Yapara, E. N. Djoukouo, Celsus Bouri +2 more

I. V. Sankar, Soma Mukhopadhyay, Ashok Chatterjee

Stanimir Kondov, William McGehee, Brian DeMarco

We observe the emergence of a disorder-induced insulating state in a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas trapped in an optical lattice. This closed quantum system free of a thermal reservoir realizes the disordered Fermi-Hubbard model, which is a minimal model for strongly correlated electronic solids. In measurements of disorder-induced localization obtained via mass transport, we detect interaction-driven delocalization and localization that persists as the temperature of the gas is raised. These behaviors are consistent with many-body localization, which is a novel paradigm for understanding localization in interacting quantum systems at non-zero temperature.