The Many-body localization transition- Breakdown of themalization in highly excited states

Note: 11 AM
Speaker: Arijeet Pal, Princeton University

When: February 2, 2011 (Wed), 11:00AM to 12:00PM (add to my calendar)
Location: SCI 328

This event is part of the Condensed Matter Theory Seminar Series.

Abstract: Quantum systems with interactions and disorder have attracted our attention since Anderson’s seminal paper in 1958. His discovery gave birth to the field of localization of non-interacting degrees of freedom leaving the question of thermal equilibrium largely unexplored. Our work aims to explore the dynamical properties of a generic, isolated, interacting quantum spin system in the presence of disorder. We find a dynamical quantum phase transition at high energy densities between the ergodic phase which thermally equilibrates and the localized phase which fails to equilibrate or to serve as its own heat bath (This is the phenomena which we call many-body localization). In this talk I will discuss the measures which we use to probe some of the properties of the 2 phases and the transition between them. Based on our preliminary analysis we make some tentative predictions about this interesting and putatively new class of transitions.

Collaborators:-
a) Prof. David Huse (Princeton University)
b) Prof. Vadim Oganesyan (City University of New York, Staten Island)

References:-
a) Phys. Rev. B 82, 174411 (2010)
b) Phys. Rev. B 80, 115104 (2009)