Statistics of systemwide correlations in the random-field XXZ chain: Importance of rare events in the many-body localized phase

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Colbois, Jeanne, Alet, Fabien, Laflorencie, Nicolas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915095405133824
author Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
Laflorencie, Nicolas
author_facet Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
Laflorencie, Nicolas
contents Motivated by recent debates around the many-body localization (MBL) problem, and in particular its stability against systemwide resonances, we investigate long-distance spin-spin correlations across the phase diagram of the random-field XXZ model, with a particular focus on the strong disorder regime. Building on state-of-the-art shift-invert diagonalization techniques, we study the high-energy behavior of transverse and longitudinal correlation functions, computed at the largest possible distance, for a broad range of disorder and interaction strengths. Our results show that while transverse correlations display a fairly stable exponential decay over the entire XXZ phase diagram, longitudinal correlations exhibit markedly different behavior, revealing distinct physical regimes. More precisely, we identify an intermediate disorder region where standard observables show well-converged MBL behavior [J. Colbois et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 116502 (2024)] while the distributions of longitudinal correlations reveal unexpected fat-tails towards large values. These rare events strongly influence the average decay of longitudinal correlations, which we find to be algebraic in a broad region inside the supposed MBL phase, whereas the typical decay remains mostly exponential. At stronger disorder and weaker interactions, this intermediate regime is replaced by a more conventional exponential decay with short correlation lengths for both typical and average correlators, as expected for standard localization. Our findings shed light on the systemwide instabilities and raise important questions about the impact of such rare but large long-range correlations on the stability of the MBL phase. Finally, we discuss the possible fate of the intermediate region in the context of recent perspectives in the field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10325
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Statistics of systemwide correlations in the random-field XXZ chain: Importance of rare events in the many-body localized phase
Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
Laflorencie, Nicolas
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
Motivated by recent debates around the many-body localization (MBL) problem, and in particular its stability against systemwide resonances, we investigate long-distance spin-spin correlations across the phase diagram of the random-field XXZ model, with a particular focus on the strong disorder regime. Building on state-of-the-art shift-invert diagonalization techniques, we study the high-energy behavior of transverse and longitudinal correlation functions, computed at the largest possible distance, for a broad range of disorder and interaction strengths. Our results show that while transverse correlations display a fairly stable exponential decay over the entire XXZ phase diagram, longitudinal correlations exhibit markedly different behavior, revealing distinct physical regimes. More precisely, we identify an intermediate disorder region where standard observables show well-converged MBL behavior [J. Colbois et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 116502 (2024)] while the distributions of longitudinal correlations reveal unexpected fat-tails towards large values. These rare events strongly influence the average decay of longitudinal correlations, which we find to be algebraic in a broad region inside the supposed MBL phase, whereas the typical decay remains mostly exponential. At stronger disorder and weaker interactions, this intermediate regime is replaced by a more conventional exponential decay with short correlation lengths for both typical and average correlators, as expected for standard localization. Our findings shed light on the systemwide instabilities and raise important questions about the impact of such rare but large long-range correlations on the stability of the MBL phase. Finally, we discuss the possible fate of the intermediate region in the context of recent perspectives in the field.
title Statistics of systemwide correlations in the random-field XXZ chain: Importance of rare events in the many-body localized phase
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10325