No Arabic abstract
We analyze the effects of disorder on the correlation functions of one-dimensional quantum models of fermions and spins with long-range interactions that decay with distance $ell$ as a power-law $1/ell^alpha$. Using a combination of analytical and numerical results, we demonstrate that power-law interactions imply a long-distance algebraic decay of correlations within disordered-localized phases, for all exponents $alpha$. The exponent of algebraic decay depends only on $alpha$, and not, e.g., on the strength of disorder. We find a similar algebraic localization for wave-functions. These results are in contrast to expectations from short-range models and are of direct relevance for a variety of quantum mechanical systems in atomic, molecular and solid-state physics.
Many-body localization is a fascinating theoretical concept describing the intricate interplay of quantum interference, i.e. localization, with many-body interaction induced dephasing. Numerous computational tests and also several experiments have been put forward to support the basic concept. Typically, averages of time-dependent global observables have been considered, such as the charge imbalance. We here investigate within the disordered spin-less Hubbard ($t-V$) model how dephasing manifests in time dependent variances of observables. We find that after quenching a Neel state the local charge density exhibits strong temporal fluctuations with a damping that is sensitive to disorder $W$: variances decay in a power law manner, $t^{-zeta}$, with an exponent $zeta(W)$ strongly varying with $W$. A heuristic argument suggests the form, $zetaapproxalpha(W)xi_text{sp}$, where $xi_text{sp}(W)$ denotes the noninteracting localization length and $alpha(W)$ characterizes the multifractal structure of the dynamically active volume fraction of the many-body Hilbert space. In order to elucidate correlations underlying the damping mechanism, exact computations are compared with results from the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximation. Implications for experimentally relevant observables, such as the imbalance, will be discussed.
The transport of excitations between pinned particles in many physical systems may be mapped to single-particle models with power-law hopping, $1/r^a$. For randomly spaced particles, these models present an effective peculiar disorder that leads to surprising localization properties. We show that in one-dimensional systems almost all eigenstates (except for a few states close to the ground state) are power-law localized for any value of $a>0$. Moreover, we show that our model is an example of a new universality class of models with power-law hopping, characterized by a duality between systems with long-range hops ($a<1$) and short-range hops ($a>1$) in which the wave function amplitude falls off algebraically with the same power $gamma$ from the localization center.
We study transport of interacting electrons in a low-dimensional disordered system at low temperature $T$. In view of localization by disorder, the conductivity $sigma(T)$ may only be non-zero due to electron-electron scattering. For weak interactions, the weak-localization regime crosses over with lowering $T$ into a dephasing-induced power-law hopping. As $T$ is further decreased, the Anderson localization in Fock space crucially affects $sigma(T)$, inducing a transition at $T=T_c$, so that $sigma(T<T_c)=0$. The critical behavior of $sigma(T)$ above $T_c$ is $lnsigma(T)propto - (T-T_c)^{-1/2}$. The mechanism of transport in the critical regime is many-particle transitions between distant states in Fock space.
While there are well established methods to study delocalization transitions of single particles in random systems, it remains a challenging problem how to characterize many body delocalization transitions. Here, we use a generalized real-space renormalization group technique to study the anisotropic Heisenberg model with long-range interactions, decaying with a power $alpha$, which are generated by placing spins at random positions along the chain. This method permits a large-scale finite-size scaling analysis. We examine the full distribution function of the excitation energy gap from the ground state and observe a crossover with decreasing $alpha$. At $alpha_c$ the full distribution coincides with a critical function. Thereby, we find strong evidence for the existence of a many body localization transition in disordered antiferromagnetic spin chains with long range interactions.
In one-dimensional electronic systems with strong repulsive interactions, charge excitations propagate much faster than spin excitations. Such systems therefore have an intermediate temperature range [termed the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid (SILL) regime] where charge excitations are cold (i.e., have low entropy) whereas spin excitations are hot. We explore the effects of charge-sector disorder in the SILL regime in the absence of external sources of equilibration. We argue that the disorder localizes all charge-sector excitations; however, spin excitations are protected against full localization, and act as a heat bath facilitating charge and energy transport on asymptotically long timescales. The charge, spin, and energy conductivities are widely separated from one another. The dominant carriers of energy are neither charge nor spin excitations, but neutral phonon modes, which undergo an unconventional form of hopping transport that we discuss. We comment on the applicability of these ideas to experiments and numerical simulations.