Interferometric probes of many-body localization

We propose a method for detecting many-body localization (MBL) in disordered spin systems. The method involves pulsed coherent spin manipulations that probe the dephasing of a given spin due to its entanglement with a set of distant spins. It allows one to distinguish the MBL phase from a noninterac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2014-10, Vol.113 (14), p.147204-147204, Article 147204
Main Authors: Serbyn, M, Knap, M, Gopalakrishnan, S, Papić, Z, Yao, N Y, Laumann, C R, Abanin, D A, Lukin, M D, Demler, E A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coherence
Computer simulation
Decomposition
Disorders
Entanglement
Localization
Mathematical models
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Summary:We propose a method for detecting many-body localization (MBL) in disordered spin systems. The method involves pulsed coherent spin manipulations that probe the dephasing of a given spin due to its entanglement with a set of distant spins. It allows one to distinguish the MBL phase from a noninteracting localized phase and a delocalized phase. In particular, we show that for a properly chosen pulse sequence the MBL phase exhibits a characteristic power-law decay reflecting its slow growth of entanglement. We find that this power-law decay is robust with respect to thermal and disorder averaging, provide numerical simulations supporting our results, and discuss possible experimental realizations in solid-state and cold-atom systems.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.113.147204