Exploring the many-body localization transition in two dimensions

• Autores: Jae-yoon Choi, Sebastian Hild, Johannes Zeiher
• Localización: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 352, Nº 6293, 2016, págs. 1547-1552
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A fundamental assumption in statistical physics is that generic closed quantum many-body systems thermalize under their own dynamics. Recently, the emergence of many-body localized systems has questioned this concept and challenged our understanding of the connection between statistical physics and quantum mechanics. Here we report on the observation of a many-body localization transition between thermal and localized phases for bosons in a two-dimensional disordered optical lattice. With our single-site–resolved measurements, we track the relaxation dynamics of an initially prepared out-of-equilibrium density pattern and find strong evidence for a diverging length scale when approaching the localization transition. Our experiments represent a demonstration and in-depth characterization of many-body localization in a regime not accessible with state-of-the-art simulations on classical computers.