{
  "id": "1607.01285",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2016-07-05T14:54:38.000Z",
  "updated": "2016-07-05T14:54:38.000Z",
  "title": "Detecting a many-body mobility edge with quantum quenches",
  "authors": [
    "Piero Naldesi",
    "Elisa Ercolessi",
    "Tommaso Roscilde"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.dis-nn",
    "cond-mat.str-el",
    "quant-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "The many-body localization (MBL) transition is a quantum phase transition involving highly excited eigenstates of a disordered quantum many-body Hamiltonian, which evolve from \"extended/ergodic\" (exhibiting extensive entanglement entropies and fluctuations) to \"localized\" (exhibiting area-law scaling of entanglement and fluctuations). The MBL transition can be driven by the strength of disorder in a given spectral range, or by the energy density at fixed disorder - if the system possesses a many-body mobility edge. Here we propose to explore the latter mechanism by using \"quantum-quench spectroscopy\", namely via quantum quenches of variable width which prepare the state of the system in a superposition of eigenstates of the Hamiltonian within a controllable spectral region. Studying numerically a chain of interacting spinless fermions in a quasi-periodic potential, we argue that this system has a many-body mobility edge; and we show that its existence translates into a clear dynamical transition in the time evolution immediately following a quench in the strength of the quasi-periodic potential, as well as a transition in the scaling properties of the quasi-stationary state at long times. Our results suggest a practical scheme for the experimental observation of many-body mobility edges using cold-atom setups.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2016-07-05T14:54:38.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "many-body mobility edge",
      "quantum quenches",
      "quasi-periodic potential",
      "quantum phase transition",
      "disordered quantum many-body hamiltonian"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}