Many-body localization in spin chain systems with quasiperiodic fields

Mac Lee, Thomas R. Look, S. P. Lim, and D. N. Sheng
Phys. Rev. B 96, 075146 – Published 23 August 2017

Abstract

We study the many-body localization of spin chain systems with quasiperiodic fields. We identify the lower bound for the critical disorder necessary to drive the transition between the thermal and many-body localized phase to be Wc>1.85, based on finite-size scaling of entanglement entropy and fluctuations of the bipartite magnetization. We also examine the time evolution of the entanglement entropy of an initial product state where we find power-law and logarithmic growth for the thermal and many-body localized phases, respectively, with a transition point Wc2.5. For larger disorder strength, both imbalance and spin-glass order are preserved at long times, while spin-glass order shows dependence on system size. Quasiperiodic fields have been applied in different experimental systems, and our study finds that such fields are very efficient at driving the many-body localized phase transition.

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  • Received 21 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.075146

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Mac Lee, Thomas R. Look, S. P. Lim, and D. N. Sheng

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University, Northridge, California 91330, USA

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 7 — 15 August 2017

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