Absence of many-body localization in a continuum
Abstract
We show that many-body localization, which exists in tight-binding models, is unstable in a continuum. Irrespective of the dimensionality of the system, many-body localization does not survive the unbounded growth of the single-particle localization length with increasing energy that is characteristic of the continuum limit. The system remains delocalized down to arbitrarily small temperature $T$, although its dynamics slows down as $T$ decreases. Remarkably, the conductivity vanishes with decreasing $T$ faster than in the Arrhenius law. The system can be characterized by an effective $T$-dependent single-particle mobility edge which diverges in the limit of $T\to 0$. Delocalization is driven by interactions between hot electrons above the mobility edge and the "bath" of thermal electrons in the vicinity of the Fermi level.
- Publication:
-
Annalen der Physik
- Pub Date:
- July 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1002/andp.201600365
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1611.05895
- Bibcode:
- 2017AnP...52900365G
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1002/andp.201600365