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Two-dimensional many-body localized systems coupled to a heat bath

Joey Li1,2, Amos Chan3, and Thorsten B. Wahl4

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Phys. Rev. B 111, 224211 – Published 30 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7wld-nzbn

Abstract

We numerically investigate the effect of coupling a two-dimensional many-body localized system to a finite heat bath, using shallow quantum circuits as a variational ansatz. Specifically, we simulate optical lattice experiments with two components of ultracold bosons, where only one species is subject to a random disorder potential and the other acts as a heat bath. We obtain a filling fraction-dependent phase diagram with a critical filling consistent with experiments. We also perform long-time time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) simulations with matrix product states, but find that the quantum circuit approach produces superior results because of the lack of boundary effects. Finally, we present additional results on the two-point correlation functions and the quantum mutual information between sites.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. B 111, 224211– Published 30 June, 2025
  • Received 24 October 2024
  • Revised 2 June 2025
  • Accepted 3 June 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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