Cat states carrying long-range correlations in the many-body localized phase

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Main Authors: Laflorencie, Nicolas, Colbois, Jeanne, Alet, Fabien
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Laflorencie, Nicolas
Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
author_facet Laflorencie, Nicolas
Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
contents Despite considerable efforts over the last decade, the high-energy phase diagram of the random-field Heisenberg chain still eludes our understanding, in particular the nature of the non-ergodic many-body localized (MBL) regime expected at strong disorder. In this work, we revisit this paradigmatic model by studying the statistics of rare atypical events of strongly correlated spin pairs traversing the entire system. They occur for unexpectedly strong disorder, i.e., in a regime where standard estimates fail to detect any instability. We then identify these very peculiar high-energy eigenstates, which exhibit system-wide ${\cal{O}}(1)$ correlations, as nearly degenerate pairs of resonant cat states of the form $|Φ_{\pm}\rangle\sim {|{α_1}\rangle}\pm {|{α_2}\rangle}$, where ${|{α_1}\rangle}$ and ${|{α_2}\rangle}$ are spin basis states. We propose a simple and generic analytical description of this new class of eigenstates that exhibit system-spanning entanglement. This analytical ansatz guides us in our search for rare hidden cat states in exponentially large many-body spectra. This also enables a systematic numerical inspection of the microscopic anatomy of these unconventional pairs, which appear in a wide range of disorder strengths. In the light of recent studies and ongoing debates on the MBL problem, our results offer new perspectives and stimulating challenges to this very active field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_10566
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cat states carrying long-range correlations in the many-body localized phase
Laflorencie, Nicolas
Colbois, Jeanne
Alet, Fabien
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
Despite considerable efforts over the last decade, the high-energy phase diagram of the random-field Heisenberg chain still eludes our understanding, in particular the nature of the non-ergodic many-body localized (MBL) regime expected at strong disorder. In this work, we revisit this paradigmatic model by studying the statistics of rare atypical events of strongly correlated spin pairs traversing the entire system. They occur for unexpectedly strong disorder, i.e., in a regime where standard estimates fail to detect any instability. We then identify these very peculiar high-energy eigenstates, which exhibit system-wide ${\cal{O}}(1)$ correlations, as nearly degenerate pairs of resonant cat states of the form $|Φ_{\pm}\rangle\sim {|{α_1}\rangle}\pm {|{α_2}\rangle}$, where ${|{α_1}\rangle}$ and ${|{α_2}\rangle}$ are spin basis states. We propose a simple and generic analytical description of this new class of eigenstates that exhibit system-spanning entanglement. This analytical ansatz guides us in our search for rare hidden cat states in exponentially large many-body spectra. This also enables a systematic numerical inspection of the microscopic anatomy of these unconventional pairs, which appear in a wide range of disorder strengths. In the light of recent studies and ongoing debates on the MBL problem, our results offer new perspectives and stimulating challenges to this very active field.
title Cat states carrying long-range correlations in the many-body localized phase
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10566