Propagation of entanglement in one-dimensional models of many-body localization

ORAL

Abstract

An important and still unanswered fundamental question is whether a closed quantum system of many interacting particles can be localized by disorder. The time evolution of an initially unentangled state is studied for a 1D random-field XXZ Hamiltonian. Even for weak interactions, when the system is thought to be in a many-body localized phase, entanglement shows neither localized nor diffusive behavior: interactions act as a singular perturbation on the truly localized state with no interactions. The logarithmic time dependence of entanglement observed rather suggests a broad range of time scales typical of glassy behavior.

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Authors

  • Jens H. Bardarson

    University of California, Berkeley, University of California at Berkeley, UC Berkeley \& Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Frank Pollmann

    Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany, Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Joel E. Moore

    University of California, Berkeley, Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley, University of California at Berkeley, UC Berkeley \& Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory