Title | Universal properties of many-body delocalization transitions |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2015 |
Authors | Potter A.C, Vasseur R., Parameswaran S.A. |
Journal | Physical Review X |
Volume | 5 |
Start Page | 031033 |
Date Published | 09/2015 |
Keywords | Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks, Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons |
Abstract | We study the dynamical melting of “hot” one-dimensional many-body localized systems. As disorder is weakened below a critical value, these nonthermal quantum glasses melt via a continuous dynamical phase transition into classical thermal liquids. By accounting for collective resonant tunneling processes, we derive and numerically solve an effective model for such quantum-to-classical transitions and compute their universal critical properties. Notably, the classical thermal liquid exhibits a broad regime of anomalously slow subdiffusive equilibration dynamics and energy transport. The subdiffusive regime is characterized by a continuously evolving dynamical critical exponent that diverges with a universal power at the transition. Our approach elucidates the universal long-distance, low-energy scaling structure of many-body delocalization transitions in one dimension, in a way that is transparently connected to the underlying microscopic physics. We discuss experimentally testable signatures of the predicted scaling properties. |
URL | http://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.5.031033 |
DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevX.5.031033 |