Kardar-Parisi-Zhang and glassy properties in 2D Anderson localization: eigenstates and wave packets

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Izem, Noam, Georgeot, Bertrand, Gong, Jiangbin, Lemarié, Gabriel, Mu, Sen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911316601470976
author Izem, Noam
Georgeot, Bertrand
Gong, Jiangbin
Lemarié, Gabriel
Mu, Sen
author_facet Izem, Noam
Georgeot, Bertrand
Gong, Jiangbin
Lemarié, Gabriel
Mu, Sen
contents Despite decades of research, the universal nature of fluctuations in disordered quantum systems remains poorly understood. Here, we present extensive numerical evidence that fluctuations in two-dimensional (2D) Anderson localization belongs to the (1+1)-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. In turn, by adopting the KPZ framework, we gain fresh insight into the structure and phenomenology of Anderson localization itself. We analyze both localized eigenstates and time-evolved wave packets, demonstrating that the fluctuation of their logarithmic density follows the KPZ scaling. Moreover, we reveal that the internal structure of these eigenstates exhibits glassy features characteristic of the directed polymer problem, including the emergence of dominant paths together with pinning and avalanche behavior. Localization is not isotropic but organized along preferential branches of weaker confinement, corresponding to these dominant paths. For localized wave packets, we further demonstrate that their spatial profiles obey a stretched-exponential form consistent with the KPZ scaling, while remaining fully compatible with the single-parameter scaling (SPS) hypothesis, a cornerstone of Anderson localization theory. Altogether, our results establish a unified KPZ framework for describing fluctuations and microscopic organization in 2D Anderson localization, revealing the glassy nature of localized states and providing new understanding into the universal structure of disordered quantum systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_12085
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Kardar-Parisi-Zhang and glassy properties in 2D Anderson localization: eigenstates and wave packets
Izem, Noam
Georgeot, Bertrand
Gong, Jiangbin
Lemarié, Gabriel
Mu, Sen
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Quantum Gases
Statistical Mechanics
Quantum Physics
Despite decades of research, the universal nature of fluctuations in disordered quantum systems remains poorly understood. Here, we present extensive numerical evidence that fluctuations in two-dimensional (2D) Anderson localization belongs to the (1+1)-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. In turn, by adopting the KPZ framework, we gain fresh insight into the structure and phenomenology of Anderson localization itself. We analyze both localized eigenstates and time-evolved wave packets, demonstrating that the fluctuation of their logarithmic density follows the KPZ scaling. Moreover, we reveal that the internal structure of these eigenstates exhibits glassy features characteristic of the directed polymer problem, including the emergence of dominant paths together with pinning and avalanche behavior. Localization is not isotropic but organized along preferential branches of weaker confinement, corresponding to these dominant paths. For localized wave packets, we further demonstrate that their spatial profiles obey a stretched-exponential form consistent with the KPZ scaling, while remaining fully compatible with the single-parameter scaling (SPS) hypothesis, a cornerstone of Anderson localization theory. Altogether, our results establish a unified KPZ framework for describing fluctuations and microscopic organization in 2D Anderson localization, revealing the glassy nature of localized states and providing new understanding into the universal structure of disordered quantum systems.
title Kardar-Parisi-Zhang and glassy properties in 2D Anderson localization: eigenstates and wave packets
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Quantum Gases
Statistical Mechanics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12085