No Arabic abstract
We analyze many-body localization (MBL) to delocalization transition in Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model of Ising spin glass (SG) in the presence of a transverse field $Gamma$. Based on energy resolved analysis, which is of relevance for a closed quantum system, we show that the quantum SK model has many-body mobility edges separating MBL phase which is non-ergodic and non-thermal from the delocalized phase which is ergodic and thermal. The range of the delocalized regime increases with increase in the strength of $Gamma$ and eventually for $Gamma$ larger than $Gamma_{CP}$ the entire many-body spectrum is delocalized. We show that the Renyi entropy is almost independent of the system size in the MBL phase, hinting towards an area law in this infinite range model while the delocalized phase shows volume law scaling of Renyi entropy. We further obtain spin glass transition curve in energy density $epsilon$-$Gamma$ plane from the collapse of eigenstate spin susceptibility. We demonstrate that in most of the parameter regime SG transition occurs close to the MBL transition indicating that the SG phase is non-ergodic and non-thermal while the paramagnetic phase is delocalized and thermal.
We propose a new approach to probing ergodicity and its breakdown in quantum many-body systems based on their response to a local perturbation. We study the distribution of matrix elements of a local operator between the systems eigenstates, finding a qualitatively different behaviour in the many-body localized (MBL) and ergodic phases. To characterize how strongly a local perturbation modifies the eigenstates, we introduce the parameter ${cal G}(L)=langle ln (V_{nm}/delta) rangle$, which represents a disorder-averaged ratio of a typical matrix element of a local operator $V$ to the energy level spacing, $delta$; this parameter is reminiscent of the Thouless conductance in the single-particle localization. We show that the parameter ${cal G}(L)$ decreases with system size $L$ in the MBL phase, and grows in the ergodic phase. We surmise that the delocalization transition occurs when ${cal G}(L)$ is independent of system size, ${cal G}(L)={cal G}_csim 1$. We illustrate our approach by studying the many-body localization transition and resolving the many-body mobility edge in a disordered 1D XXZ spin-1/2 chain using exact diagonalization and time-evolving block decimation methods. Our criterion for the MBL transition gives insights into microscopic details of transition. Its direct physical consequences, in particular logarithmically slow transport at the transition, and extensive entanglement entropy of the eigenstates, are consistent with recent renormalization group predictions.
We argue that when the number of spins $N$ in the SK model is finite, the Parisi scheme can be terminated after $K$ replica-symmetry breaking steps, where $K(N) propto N^{1/6}$. We have checked this idea by Monte Carlo simulations: we expect the typical number of peaks and features $R$ in the (non-bond averaged) Parisi overlap function $P_J(q)$ to be of order $2K(N)$, and our counting (for samples of size $N$ up to 4096 spins) gives results which are consistent with our arguments. We can estimate the leading finite size correction for any thermodynamic quantity by finding its $K$ dependence in the Parisi scheme and then replacing $K$ by K(N). Our predictions of how the Edwards-Anderson order parameter and the internal energy of the system approach their thermodynamic limit compare well with the results of our Monte Carlo simulations. The $N$-dependence of the sample-to-sample fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities can also be obtained; the total internal energy should have sample-to-sample fluctuations of order $N^{1/6}$, which is again consistent with the results of our numerical simulations.
Some recent results concerning the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model are reported. For $T$ near the critical temperature $T_c$, the replica free energy of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is taken as the starting point of an expansion in powers of $delta Q_{ab} = (Q_{ab} - Q_{ab}^{rm RS})$ about the Replica Symmetric solution $Q_{ab}^{rm RS}$. The expansion is kept up to 4-th order in $delta{bm Q}$ where a Parisi solution $Q_{ab} = Q(x)$ emerges, but only if one remains close enough to $T_c$. For $T$ near zero we show how to separate contributions from $xll Tll 1$ where the Hessian maintains the standard structure of Parisi Replica Symmetry Breaking with bands of eigenvalues bounded below by zero modes. For $Tll x leq 1$ the bands collapse and only two eigenvalues, a null one and a positive one, are found. In this region the solution stands in what can be called a {sl droplet-like} regime.
Thermalization of random-field Heisenberg spin chain is probed by time evolution of density correlation functions. Studying the impacts of average energies of initial product states on dynamics of the system, we provide arguments in favor of the existence of a mobility edge in the large system-size limit.