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Probing Slow Relaxation and Many-Body Localization in Two-Dimensional Quasiperiodic Systems

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Bordia, Pranjal 
Lueschen, Henrik 
Scherg, Sebastian 
Gopalakrishnan, Sarang 
Knap, Michael 

Abstract

In a many-body localized (MBL) quantum system, the ergodic hypothesis breaks down, giving rise to a fundamentally new many-body phase. Whether and under which conditions MBL can occur in higher dimensions remains an outstanding challenge both for experiments and theory. Here, we experimentally explore the relaxation dynamics of an interacting gas of fermionic potassium atoms loaded in a twodimensional optical lattice with different quasiperiodic potentials along the two directions. We observe a dramatic slowing down of the relaxation for intermediate disorder strengths. Furthermore, beyond a critical disorder strength, we see negligible relaxation on experimentally accessible time scales, indicating a possible transition into a two-dimensional MBL phase. Our experiments reveal a distinct interplay of interactions, disorder, and dimensionality and provide insights into regimes where controlled theoretical approaches are scarce.

Description

Keywords

Atomic and Molecular Physics, Condensed Matter Physics

Journal Title

PHYSICAL REVIEW X

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2160-3308
2160-3308

Volume Title

7

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)