Abstract
We consider a weakly interacting quantum spin chain with random local interactions. We prove that many-body localization follows from a physically reasonable assumption that limits the extent of level attraction in the statistics of eigenvalues. In a Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser-style construction, a sequence of local unitary transformations is used to diagonalize the Hamiltonian by deforming the initial tensor-product basis into a complete set of exact many-body eigenfunctions.
- Received 13 April 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.027201
© 2016 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics
Viewpoint
ViewpointMany-Body Localization Needs a Bath
Published 5 July 2016
Theoretical work proves that interacting quantum systems can enter a many-body localized phase in which they cannot reach thermal equilibrium without an external bath.
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