Many body (de-)localization: A dynamical transition triggered by a quantum avalanche

24.11.2017 14:15 – 15:15

I will review recent progress in the understanding of many-body localization (MBL) : the phenomenon of lacking
thermalization in disordered quantum systems, despite interactions.

After discussing the restricted domain of existence of strict manybody-localization and the role of various rare events,
I will present a real space renormalization group analysis which offers a microscopic scenario for the unusual dynamical
phase transition which occurs as a localized system is tuned into an ergodic regime. While the transition is associated
with a diverging time scale for thermalization, most spatial correlators remain short range at the critical point. The
latter goes hand in hand with the discontinuous evolution of expectation values of local observables. These features
distinguish the MBL transition sharply from standard critical phenomena.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Ecole de Physique

Auditoire Stueckelberg

entrée libre