Many-body localization due to random interactions

Abstract

The possibility of observing many body localization of ultracold atoms in a one dimensional optical lattice is discussed for random interactions. In the non-interacting limit, such a system reduces to single-particle physics in the absence of disorder, i.e. to extended states. In effect the observed localization is inherently due to interactions and is thus a genuine many-body effect. In the system studied, many-body localization manifests itself in a lack of thermalization visible in temporal propagation of a specially prepared initial state, in transport properties, in the logarithmic growth of entanglement entropy as well as in statistical properties of energy levels.