Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition

We study a quantum spin system—adapted from a facilitated spin model for classical glasses—with local bilinear interactions and without quenched disorder which seems to display characteristic signatures of a many-body localisation (MBL) transition. From direct diagonalisation of small systems, we fi...

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Main Authors: Hickey, James M., Genway, Sam, Garrahan, Juan P.
Format: Article
Published: IOP Publishing 2016
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39663/
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author Hickey, James M.
Genway, Sam
Garrahan, Juan P.
author_facet Hickey, James M.
Genway, Sam
Garrahan, Juan P.
author_sort Hickey, James M.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We study a quantum spin system—adapted from a facilitated spin model for classical glasses—with local bilinear interactions and without quenched disorder which seems to display characteristic signatures of a many-body localisation (MBL) transition. From direct diagonalisation of small systems, we find a change in certain dynamical and spectral properties at a critical value of a coupling, from those characteristic of a thermalising phase to those characteristic of a MBL phase. The system we consider is known to have a quantum phase transition in its ground-state in the limit of large size, related to a first-order active-to-inactive phase transition in the stochastic trajectories of an associated classical model of glasses. Our results here suggest that this first-order transition in the low-lying spectrum may influence the rest of the spectrum of the system in the large size limit. These findings may help understand the connection between MBL and structural glass transitions.
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spelling nottingham-396632020-05-04T17:50:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39663/ Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition Hickey, James M. Genway, Sam Garrahan, Juan P. We study a quantum spin system—adapted from a facilitated spin model for classical glasses—with local bilinear interactions and without quenched disorder which seems to display characteristic signatures of a many-body localisation (MBL) transition. From direct diagonalisation of small systems, we find a change in certain dynamical and spectral properties at a critical value of a coupling, from those characteristic of a thermalising phase to those characteristic of a MBL phase. The system we consider is known to have a quantum phase transition in its ground-state in the limit of large size, related to a first-order active-to-inactive phase transition in the stochastic trajectories of an associated classical model of glasses. Our results here suggest that this first-order transition in the low-lying spectrum may influence the rest of the spectrum of the system in the large size limit. These findings may help understand the connection between MBL and structural glass transitions. IOP Publishing 2016-05-24 Article PeerReviewed Hickey, James M., Genway, Sam and Garrahan, Juan P. (2016) Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2016 (5). 054047. ISSN 1742-5468 Slow relaxation and glassy dynamics Structural glasses (theory) Thermalization Quantum quenches http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-5468/2016/05/054047/meta doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2016/05/054047 doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2016/05/054047
spellingShingle Slow relaxation and glassy dynamics
Structural glasses (theory)
Thermalization
Quantum quenches
Hickey, James M.
Genway, Sam
Garrahan, Juan P.
Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title_full Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title_fullStr Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title_full_unstemmed Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title_short Signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
title_sort signatures of many-body localisation in a system without disorder and the relation to a glass transition
topic Slow relaxation and glassy dynamics
Structural glasses (theory)
Thermalization
Quantum quenches
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39663/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39663/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39663/