Abstract
A fundamental assumption in statistical physics is that generic closed quantum many-body systems thermalize under their own dynamics. Recently, the emergence of many-body localized systems has questioned this concept and challenged our understanding of the connection between statistical physics and quantum mechanics. Here we report on the observation of a many-body localization transition between thermal and localized phases for bosons in a two-dimensional disordered optical lattice.With our single-site-resolved measurements, we track the relaxation dynamics of an initially prepared out-of-equilibrium density pattern and find strong evidence for a diverging length scale when approaching the localization transition. Our experiments represent a demonstration and in-depth characterization of many-body localization in a regime not accessible with state-of-the-art simulations on classical computers.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1547-1552 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Science |
Volume | 352 |
Issue number | 6293 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 24 2016 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General