Periodically driven ergodic and many-body localized quantum systems

Journal Article · Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Annals of Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AOP.2014.11.008· OSTI ID:22447593

Ponte, Pedro ^[1]; Chandran, Anushya ^[1]; Abanin, Dmitry A. ^[1]

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1. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON N2L 2Y5 (Canada)

We study dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems whose Hamiltonian is switched between two different operators periodically in time. The eigenvalue problem of the associated Floquet operator maps onto an effective hopping problem. Using the effective model, we establish conditions on the spectral properties of the two Hamiltonians for the system to localize in energy space. We find that ergodic systems always delocalize in energy space and heat up to infinite temperature, for both local and global driving. In contrast, many-body localized systems with quenched disorder remain localized at finite energy. We support our conclusions by numerical simulations of disordered spin chains. We argue that our results hold for general driving protocols, and discuss their experimental implications.

• OSTI ID: 22447593
• Journal Information: Annals of Physics, Vol. 353; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-4916
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EIGENVALUES
HAMILTONIANS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
PERIODICITY
QUANTUM SYSTEMS
SPIN
THERMALIZATION