Abstract

We uncover a new nonergodic phase, distinct from the many-body localized (MBL) phase, in a disordered two-leg ladder of interacting hardcore bosons. The dynamics of this emergent phase, which has no single-particle analog and exists only for strong disorder and finite interaction, is determined by the many-body configuration of the initial state. Remarkably, this phase features the coexistence of localized and extended many-body states at fixed energy density and thus does not exhibit a many-body mobility edge, nor does it reduce to a model with a single-particle mobility edge in the noninteracting limit. We show that eigenstates in this phase can be described in terms of interacting emergent Ising spin degrees of freedom ("singlons") suspended in a mixture with inert charge degrees of freedom ("doublons" and "holons") and thus dub it a mobility emulsion (ME). We argue that grouping eigenstates by their doublon/holon density reveals a transition between localized and extended states that is invisible as a function of energy density. We further demonstrate that the dynamics of the system following a quench may exhibit either delocalizing or localized behavior depending on the doublon/holon density of the initial product state. Intriguingly, the ergodicity of the ME is thus tuned by the initial state of the many-body system. These results establish a new paradigm for using many-body configurations as a tool to study and control the MBL transition. The ME phase may be observable in suitably prepared cold atom optical lattices.

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2018
Volume
98
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.98.174201
Journal
Physical Review B
Contributors