Observation of Slow Dynamics near the Many-Body Localization Transition in One-Dimensional Quasiperiodic Systems.


Type
Article
Change log
Authors
Lüschen, Henrik P 
Bordia, Pranjal 
Scherg, Sebastian 
Alet, Fabien 
Altman, Ehud 
Abstract

In the presence of sufficiently strong disorder or quasiperiodic fields, an interacting many-body system can fail to thermalize and become many-body localized. The associated transition is of particular interest, since it occurs not only in the ground state but over an extended range of energy densities. So far, theoretical studies of the transition have focused mainly on the case of true-random disorder. In this work, we experimentally and numerically investigate the regime close to the many-body localization transition in quasiperiodic systems. We find slow relaxation of the density imbalance close to the transition, strikingly similar to the behavior near the transition in true-random systems. This dynamics is found to continuously slow down upon approaching the transition and allows for an estimate of the transition point. We discuss possible microscopic origins of these slow dynamics.

Description
Keywords
cond-mat.quant-gas, cond-mat.quant-gas, cond-mat.dis-nn, cond-mat.stat-mech, cond-mat.str-el, quant-ph
Journal Title
Phys Rev Lett
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0031-9007
1079-7114
Volume Title
119
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)