No Arabic abstract
We study Anderson localization in a generalized discrete time quantum walk - a unitary map related to a Floquet driven quantum lattice. It is controlled by a quantum coin matrix which depends on four angles with the meaning of potential and kinetic energy, and external and internal synthetic flux. Such quantum coins can be engineered with microwave pulses in qubit chains. The ordered case yields a two-band eigenvalue structure on the unit circle which becomes completely flat in the limit of vanishing kinetic energy. Disorder in the external magnetic field does not impact localization. Disorder in all the remaining angles yields Anderson localization. In particular, kinetic energy disorder leads to logarithmic divergence of the localization length at spectral symmetry points. Strong disorder in potential and internal magnetic field energies allows to obtain analytical expressions for spectrally independent localization length which is highly useful for various applications.
Spectral statistics of disordered systems encode Thouless and Heisenberg time scales whose ratio determines whether the system is chaotic or localized. Identifying similarities between system size and disorder strength scaling of Thouless time for disordered quantum many-body systems with results for 3D and 5D Anderson models, we argue that the two-parameter scaling breaks down in the vicinity of the transition to the localized phase signalling subdiffusive dynamics.
The understanding of disordered quantum systems is still far from being complete, despite many decades of research on a variety of physical systems. In this review we discuss how Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms in disordered potentials have opened a new window for studying fundamental phenomena related to disorder. In particular, we point our attention to recent experimental studies on Anderson localization and on the interplay of disorder and weak interactions. These realize a very promising starting point for a deeper understanding of the complex behaviour of interacting, disordered systems.
The localization of one-electron states in the large (but finite) disorder limit is investigated. The inverse participation number shows a non--monotonic behavior as a function of energy owing to anomalous behavior of few-site localization. The two-site approximation is solved analytically and shown to capture the essential features found in numerical simulations on one-, two- and three-dimensional systems. Further improvement has been obtained by solving a three-site model.
It has been proposed that disorder may lead to a new type of topological insulator, called topological Anderson insulator (TAI). Here we examine the physical origin of this phenomenon. We calculate the topological invariants and density of states of disordered model in a super-cell of 2-dimensional HgTe/CdTe quantum well. The topologically non-trivial phase is triggered by a band touching as the disorder strength increases. The TAI is protected by a mobility gap, in contrast to the band gap in conventional quantum spin Hall systems. The mobility gap in the TAI consists of a cluster of non-trivial subgaps separated by almost flat and localized bands.
In a recent publication, J. Phys.: Condens. Matt. 14 13777 (2002), Kuzovkov et. al. announced an analytical solution of the two-dimensional Anderson localisation problem via the calculation of a generalised Lyapunov exponent using signal theory. Surprisingly, for certain energies and small disorder strength they observed delocalised states. We study the transmission properties of the same model using well-known transfer matrix methods. Our results disagree with the findings obtained using signal theory. We point to the possible origin of this discrepancy and comment on the general strategy to use a generalised Lyapunov exponent for studying Anderson localisation.