Many-Body-Localization Transition : sensitivity to twisted boundary conditions

Abstract

For disordered interacting quantum systems, the sensitivity of the spectrum to twisted boundary conditions depending on an infinitesimal angle $\phi$ can be used to analyze the Many-Body-Localization Transition. The sensitivity of the energy levels $E_n(\phi)$ is measured by the level curvature $K_n=E_n"(0)$, or more precisely by the Thouless dimensionless curvature $k_n=K_n/\Delta_n$, where $\Delta_n$ is the level spacing that decays exponentially with the size $L$ of the system. For instance $\Delta_n \propto 2^{-L}$ in the middle of the spectrum of quantum spin chains of $L$ spins, while the Drude weight $D_n=L K_n$ studied recently by M. Filippone, P.W. Brouwer, J. Eisert and F. von Oppen [arxiv:1606.07291v1] involves a different rescaling. The sensitivity of the eigenstates $\vert \psi_n(\phi) > $ is characterized by the susceptibility $\chi_n=-F_n"(0)$ of the fidelity $F_n =\vert < \psi_n(0) \vert \psi_n(\phi) >\vert $. Both observables are distributed with probability distributions displaying power-law tails $P_{\beta}(k) \simeq A_{\beta} \vert k \vert^{-(2+\beta)} $ and $Q(\chi) \simeq B_{\beta} \chi^{-\frac{3+\beta}{2}} $, where $\beta$ is the level repulsion index taking the values $\beta^{GOE}=1$ in the ergodic phase and $\beta^{loc}=0$ in the localized phase. The amplitudes $A_{\beta}$ and $B_{\beta}$ of these two heavy tails are given by some moments of the off-diagonal matrix element of the local current operator between two nearby energy levels, whose probability distribution has been proposed as a criterion for the Many-Body-Localization transition by M. Serbyn, Z. Papic and D.A. Abanin [Phys. Rev. X 5, 041047 (2015)].