Scrambling and Many-Body Localization in the XXZ-Chain

Niklas Bölter, Stefan Kehrein

Published 2021-10-20, updated 2022-03-04Version 3

The tripartite information is an observable-independent measure for scrambling and delocalization of information. Therefore one can expect that the tripartite information is a good observable-independent indicator for distinguishing between many-body localized and delocalized regimes, which we confirm for the XXZ-chain in a random field. Specifically, we find that the tripartite information signal spreads inside a lightcone that only grows logarithmically in time in the many-body localized regime similar to the entanglement entropy. We also find that the tripartite information eventually reaches a plateau with an asymptotic value that is suppressed by strong disorder.