Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

SciPost Physics

Universality in Anderson localization on random graphs with varying connectivity

Piotr Sierant, Maciej Lewenstein, Antonello Scardicchio

Published Aug 3, 2023• 43 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We perform a thorough and complete analysis of the Anderson localization transition on several models of random graphs with regular and random connectivity. The unprecedented precision and abundance of our exact diagonalization data (both spectra and eigenstates), together with new finite size scaling and statistical analysis of the graph ensembles, unveils a universal behavior which is described by two simple, integer, scaling exponents. A by-product of such analysis is a reconciliation of the tension between the results of perturbation theory coming from strong disorder and earlier numerical works, which seemed to suggest that there should be a non-ergodic region above a given value of disorder W_{E} W E which is strictly less than the Anderson localization critical disorder W_C W C , and that of other works which suggest that there is no such region. We find that, although no separate W_{E} W E exists from W_C W C , the length scale at which fully developed ergodicity is found diverges like |W-W_C|^{-1} | W − W C | − 1 , while the critical length over which delocalization develops is \sim |W-W_C|^{-1/2} ∼ | W − W C | − 1 / 2 . The separation of these two scales at the critical point allows for a true non-ergodic, delocalized region. In addition, by looking at eigenstates and studying leading and sub-leading terms in system size-dependence of participation entropies, we show that the former contain information about the non-ergodicity volume which becomes non-trivial already deep in the delocalized regime. We also discuss the quantitative similarities between the Anderson transition on random graphs and many-body localization transition.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.15.2.045

Related papers

Universality in Anderson localization on random graphs with varying connectivity

Piotr Sierant, Maciej Lewenstein, Antonello Scardicchio

We perform a thorough and complete analysis of the Anderson localization transition on several models of random graphs with regular and random connectivity. The unprecedented precision and abundance of our exact diagonalization data (both spectra and eigenstates), together with new finite size scaling and statistical analysis of the graph ensembles, unveils a universal behavior which is described by two simple, integer, scaling exponents. A by-product of such analysis is a reconciliation of the tension between the results of perturbation theory coming from strong disorder and earlier numerical works, which seemed to suggest that there should be a non-ergodic region above a given value of disorder $W_{E}$ which is strictly less than the Anderson localization critical disorder $W_C$, and that of other works which suggest that there is no such region. We find that, although no separate $W_{E}$ exists from $W_C$, the length scale at which fully developed ergodicity is found diverges like $|W-W_C|^{-1}$, while the critical length over which delocalization develops is $\sim |W-W_C|^{-1/2}$. The separation of these two scales at the critical point allows for a true non-ergodic, delocalized region. In addition, by looking at eigenstates and studying leading and sub-leading terms in system size-dependence of participation entropies, we show that the former contain information about the non-ergodicity volume which becomes non-trivial already deep in the delocalized regime. We also discuss the quantitative similarities between the Anderson transition on random graphs and many-body localization transition.

arXiv:2205.14614•May 29, 2022•1 citation

Anderson localization and ergodicity on random regular graphs

Konstantin S. Tikhonov, A. D. Mirlin, M. A. Skvortsov

A disordered quantum system can be driven, e.g., by increasing disorder, through the Anderson transition between a delocalized and localized phase. Recently, Anderson localization on treelike graphs has attracted much attention in view of its connections with problems of many-body localization. One of the central questions in this context is that of ergodicity of eigenstates. The authors of this paper perform a numerical study of Anderson transition on random regular graphs (RRGs) with diagonal disorder. The problem can be described as a tight-binding model on a lattice with $N$ sites that is locally a tree with constant connectivity. Focusing on the delocalized side of the transition, they show that the data can be interpreted in terms of the finite-size crossover from a small ($N\ensuremath{\ll}{N}_{c}$) to a large ($N\ensuremath{\gg}{N}_{c}$) system, where ${N}_{c}$ is the correlation volume diverging exponentially at the transition. A distinct feature of this crossover is a nonmonotonicity of the spectral and wave-function statistics, which is related to properties of the critical phase in the studied model and renders the finite-size analysis highly nontrivial. The results support an analytical prediction that states in the delocalized phase (and at $N\ensuremath{\gg}{N}_{c}$) are ergodic.

arXiv:1604.05353•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Dec 22, 2016•167 citations

Critical properties of the Anderson transition on random graphs: Two-parameter scaling theory, Kosterlitz-Thouless type flow, and many-body localization

Ignacio García-Mata, John Martin, O. Giraud +3 more

The Anderson transition in random graphs has raised great interest, partly out of the hope that its analogy with the many-body localization (MBL) transition might lead to a better understanding of this hotly debated phenomenon. Unlike the latter, many results for random graphs are now well established, in particular, the existence and precise value of a critical disorder separating a localized from an ergodic delocalized phase. However, the renormalization group flow and the nature of the transition are not well understood. In turn, recent works on the MBL transition have made the remarkable prediction that the flow is of Kosterlitz-Thouless type. In this paper, we show that the Anderson transition on graphs displays the same type of flow. Our work attests to the importance of rare branches along which wave functions have a much larger localization length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ than the one in the transverse direction ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. Importantly, these two lengths have different critical behaviors: ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ diverges with a critical exponent ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}=1$, while ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ reaches a finite universal value ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{c}$ at the transition point ${W}_{c}$. Indeed, ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{\approx}{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{c}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}+{\ensuremath{\xi}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, with $\ensuremath{\xi}\ensuremath{\sim}{(W\ensuremath{-}{W}_{c})}^{\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ associated with a new critical exponent ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}=\frac{1}{2}$, where $exp(\ensuremath{\xi})$ controls finite-size effects. The delocalized phase inherits the strongly nonergodic properties of the critical regime at short scales, but is ergodic at large scales, with a unique critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{1}{2}$. This shows a very strong analogy with the MBL transition: the behavior of ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ is identical to that recently predicted for the typical localization length of MBL in a phenomenological renormalization group flow. We demonstrate these important properties for a small-world complex network model and show the universality of our results by considering different network parameters and different key observables of Anderson localization.

arXiv:2209.04337•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Dec 5, 2022•54 citations

Renormalization group analysis of the Anderson model on random regular graphs

Carlo Vanoni, B. L. Altshuler, V. E. Kravtsov +1 more

We present a renormalization group (RG) analysis of the problem of Anderson localization on a random regular graph (RRG) which generalizes the RG of Abrahams, Anderson, Licciardello, and Ramakrishnan to infinite-dimensional graphs. The RG equations necessarily involve two parameters (one being the changing connectivity of subtrees), but we show that the one-parameter scaling hypothesis is recovered for sufficiently large system sizes for both eigenstates and spectrum observables. We also explain the nonmonotonic behavior of dynamical and spectral quantities as a function of the system size for values of disorder close to the transition, by identifying two terms in the beta function of the running fractal dimension of different signs and functional dependence. Our theory provides a simple and coherent explanation for the unusual scaling behavior observed in numerical data of the Anderson model on RRG and of many-body localization.

arXiv:2306.14965•Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences•Jul 11, 2024•32 citations

Many-body localization transition with power-law interactions: Statistics of eigenstates

Konstantin S. Tikhonov, A. D. Mirlin

We study spectral and wave-function statistics for many-body localization transition in systems with long-range interactions decaying as $1/{r}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ with an exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ satisfying $d\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}2d$, where $d$ is the spatial dimensionality. We refine earlier arguments and show that the system undergoes a localization transition as a function of the rescaled disorder ${W}^{*}=W/{L}^{2d\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}lnL$, where $W$ is the disorder strength and $L$ the system size. This transition has much in common with that on random regular graphs. We further perform a detailed analysis of the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of many-body wave functions, exploring how ergodic behavior in the delocalized phase switches to fractal one at the critical point and on the localized side of the transition. Our analytical results for the scaling of the critical disorder $W$ with the system size $L$ and for the scaling of IPR in the delocalized and localized phases are supported and corroborated by exact diagonalization of spin chains.

arXiv:1803.04285•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jun 22, 2018•98 citations

Anderson localisation in spatially structured random graphs

Bibek Saha, Sthitadhi Roy

We study Anderson localisation on high-dimensional graphs with spatial structure induced by long-ranged but distance-dependent hopping. To this end, we introduce a class of models that interpolate between the short-range Anderson model on a random regular graph and fully connected models with statistically uniform hopping, by embedding a random regular graph into a complete graph and allowing hopping amplitudes to decay exponentially with graph distance. The competition between the exponentially growing number of neighbours with graph distance and the exponentially decaying hopping amplitude positions our models effectively as power-law hopping generalisation of the Anderson model on random regular graphs. Using a combination of numerical exact diagonalisation and analytical renormalised perturbation theory, we establish the resulting localisation phase diagram emerging from the interplay of the lengthscale associated to the hopping range and the onsite disorder strength. We find that increasing the hopping range shifts the localisation transition to stronger disorder, and that beyond a critical range the localised phase ceases to exist even at arbitrarily strong disorder. Our results indicate a direct Anderson transition between delocalised and localised phases, with no evidence for an intervening multifractal phase, for both deterministic and random hopping models. A scaling analysis based on inverse participation ratios reveals behaviour consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transition with two-parameter scaling, in line with Anderson transitions on high-dimensional graphs. We also observe distinct critical behaviour in average and typical correlation functions, reflecting the different scaling properties of generalised inverse participation ratios.

cond-mat.dis-nnCross-listedarXiv:2601.00220•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jan 2, 2026•2 citations
We perform a thorough and complete analysis of the Anderson localization transition on several models of random graphs with regular and random connectivity. The unprecedented precision and abundance of our exact diagonalization data (both spectra and eigenstates), together with new finite size scaling and statistical analysis of the graph ensembles, unveils a universal behavior which is described by two simple, integer, scaling exponents. A by-product of such analysis is a reconciliation of the tension between the results of perturbation theory coming from strong disorder and earlier numerical works, which seemed to suggest that there should be a non-ergodic region above a given value of disorder W_{E} W E which is strictly less than the Anderson localization critical disorder W_C W C , and that of other works which suggest that there is no such region. We find that, although no separate W_{E} W E exists from W_C W C , the length scale at which fully developed ergodicity is found diverges like |W-W_C|^{-1} | W − W C | − 1 , while the critical length over which delocalization develops is \sim |W-W_C|^{-1/2} ∼ | W − W C | − 1 / 2 . The separation of these two scales at the critical point allows for a true non-ergodic, delocalized region. In addition, by looking at eigenstates and studying leading and sub-leading terms in system size-dependence of participation entropies, we show that the former contain information about the non-ergodicity volume which becomes non-trivial already deep in the delocalized regime. We also discuss the quantitative similarities between the Anderson transition on random graphs and many-body localization transition.
We perform a thorough and complete analysis of the Anderson localization transition on several models of random graphs with regular and random connectivity. The unprecedented precision and abundance of our exact diagonalization data (both spectra and eigenstates), together with new finite size scaling and statistical analysis of the graph ensembles, unveils a universal behavior which is described by two simple, integer, scaling exponents. A by-product of such analysis is a reconciliation of the tension between the results of perturbation theory coming from strong disorder and earlier numerical works, which seemed to suggest that there should be a non-ergodic region above a given value of disorder WEW_{E}WE​ which is strictly less than the Anderson localization critical disorder WCW_CWC​, and that of other works which suggest that there is no such region. We find that, although no separate WEW_{E}WE​ exists from WCW_CWC​, the length scale at which fully developed ergodicity is found diverges like ∣W−WC∣−1|W-W_C|^{-1}∣W−WC​∣−1, while the critical length over which delocalization develops is ∼∣W−WC∣−1/2\sim |W-W_C|^{-1/2}∼∣W−WC​∣−1/2. The separation of these two scales at the critical point allows for a true non-ergodic, delocalized region. In addition, by looking at eigenstates and studying leading and sub-leading terms in system size-dependence of participation entropies, we show that the former contain information about the non-ergodicity volume which becomes non-trivial already deep in the delocalized regime. We also discuss the quantitative similarities between the Anderson transition on random graphs and many-body localization transition.
A disordered quantum system can be driven, e.g., by increasing disorder, through the Anderson transition between a delocalized and localized phase. Recently, Anderson localization on treelike graphs has attracted much attention in view of its connections with problems of many-body localization. One of the central questions in this context is that of ergodicity of eigenstates. The authors of this paper perform a numerical study of Anderson transition on random regular graphs (RRGs) with diagonal disorder. The problem can be described as a tight-binding model on a lattice with NNN sites that is locally a tree with constant connectivity. Focusing on the delocalized side of the transition, they show that the data can be interpreted in terms of the finite-size crossover from a small ($N\ensuremath{\ll}{N}_{c}$) to a large ($N\ensuremath{\gg}{N}_{c}$) system, where Nc{N}_{c}Nc​ is the correlation volume diverging exponentially at the transition. A distinct feature of this crossover is a nonmonotonicity of the spectral and wave-function statistics, which is related to properties of the critical phase in the studied model and renders the finite-size analysis highly nontrivial. The results support an analytical prediction that states in the delocalized phase (and at $N\ensuremath{\gg}{N}_{c}$) are ergodic.
The Anderson transition in random graphs has raised great interest, partly out of the hope that its analogy with the many-body localization (MBL) transition might lead to a better understanding of this hotly debated phenomenon. Unlike the latter, many results for random graphs are now well established, in particular, the existence and precise value of a critical disorder separating a localized from an ergodic delocalized phase. However, the renormalization group flow and the nature of the transition are not well understood. In turn, recent works on the MBL transition have made the remarkable prediction that the flow is of Kosterlitz-Thouless type. In this paper, we show that the Anderson transition on graphs displays the same type of flow. Our work attests to the importance of rare branches along which wave functions have a much larger localization length ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ than the one in the transverse direction ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$. Importantly, these two lengths have different critical behaviors: ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ diverges with a critical exponent ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}=1$, while ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ reaches a finite universal value ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{c}$ at the transition point Wc{W}_{c}Wc​. Indeed, ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{\approx}{{\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{c}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}+{\ensuremath{\xi}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, with $\ensuremath{\xi}\ensuremath{\sim}{(W\ensuremath{-}{W}_{c})}^{\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ associated with a new critical exponent ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}=\frac{1}{2}$, where $exp(\ensuremath{\xi})$ controls finite-size effects. The delocalized phase inherits the strongly nonergodic properties of the critical regime at short scales, but is ergodic at large scales, with a unique critical exponent $\ensuremath{\nu}=\frac{1}{2}$. This shows a very strong analogy with the MBL transition: the behavior of ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ is identical to that recently predicted for the typical localization length of MBL in a phenomenological renormalization group flow. We demonstrate these important properties for a small-world complex network model and show the universality of our results by considering different network parameters and different key observables of Anderson localization.
We present a renormalization group (RG) analysis of the problem of Anderson localization on a random regular graph (RRG) which generalizes the RG of Abrahams, Anderson, Licciardello, and Ramakrishnan to infinite-dimensional graphs. The RG equations necessarily involve two parameters (one being the changing connectivity of subtrees), but we show that the one-parameter scaling hypothesis is recovered for sufficiently large system sizes for both eigenstates and spectrum observables. We also explain the nonmonotonic behavior of dynamical and spectral quantities as a function of the system size for values of disorder close to the transition, by identifying two terms in the beta function of the running fractal dimension of different signs and functional dependence. Our theory provides a simple and coherent explanation for the unusual scaling behavior observed in numerical data of the Anderson model on RRG and of many-body localization.
We study spectral and wave-function statistics for many-body localization transition in systems with long-range interactions decaying as $1/{r}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ with an exponent $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ satisfying $d\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}2d$, where ddd is the spatial dimensionality. We refine earlier arguments and show that the system undergoes a localization transition as a function of the rescaled disorder ${W}^{*}=W/{L}^{2d\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}lnL$, where WWW is the disorder strength and LLL the system size. This transition has much in common with that on random regular graphs. We further perform a detailed analysis of the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of many-body wave functions, exploring how ergodic behavior in the delocalized phase switches to fractal one at the critical point and on the localized side of the transition. Our analytical results for the scaling of the critical disorder WWW with the system size LLL and for the scaling of IPR in the delocalized and localized phases are supported and corroborated by exact diagonalization of spin chains.
We study Anderson localisation on high-dimensional graphs with spatial structure induced by long-ranged but distance-dependent hopping. To this end, we introduce a class of models that interpolate between the short-range Anderson model on a random regular graph and fully connected models with statistically uniform hopping, by embedding a random regular graph into a complete graph and allowing hopping amplitudes to decay exponentially with graph distance. The competition between the exponentially growing number of neighbours with graph distance and the exponentially decaying hopping amplitude positions our models effectively as power-law hopping generalisation of the Anderson model on random regular graphs. Using a combination of numerical exact diagonalisation and analytical renormalised perturbation theory, we establish the resulting localisation phase diagram emerging from the interplay of the lengthscale associated to the hopping range and the onsite disorder strength. We find that increasing the hopping range shifts the localisation transition to stronger disorder, and that beyond a critical range the localised phase ceases to exist even at arbitrarily strong disorder. Our results indicate a direct Anderson transition between delocalised and localised phases, with no evidence for an intervening multifractal phase, for both deterministic and random hopping models. A scaling analysis based on inverse participation ratios reveals behaviour consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transition with two-parameter scaling, in line with Anderson transitions on high-dimensional graphs. We also observe distinct critical behaviour in average and typical correlation functions, reflecting the different scaling properties of generalised inverse participation ratios.