The many-body localization transition

Abstract

We use exact diagonalization to explore the many-body localization transition in a random-field spin-1/2 chain. We examine the correlations within each many-body eigenstate, looking at all states and thus effectively working at infinite temperature. For weak random field the eigenstates are thermal, as expected in this nonlocalized, ergodic phase. For strong random field the eigenstates are localized, with only short-range entanglement. We roughly locate the localization transition and examine the probability distributions of the correlations, finding that this quantum phase transition at nonzero temperature may be showing infinite-randomness scaling.

5 pages, 4 figures; A longer, published version of this paper available at arXiv:1010.1992 and Phys. Rev. B 82, 174411 (2010)

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• Experimentally accessible witnesses of many-body localisation
• Rydberg rings