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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Probing the many-body localized spin-glass phase through quench dynamics

Pietro Brighi1, Marko Ljubotina2,3,4, and Maksym Serbyn2

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Phys. Rev. B 111, L220202 – Published 12 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9fms-ygfz

Abstract

Eigenstates of quantum many-body systems are often used to define phases of matter in and out of equilibrium; however, experimentally accessing highly excited eigenstates is a challenging task, calling for alternative strategies to dynamically probe nonequilibrium phases. In this work, we characterize the dynamical properties of a disordered spin chain, focusing on the spin-glass regime. Using tensor-network simulations, we observe oscillatory behavior of local expectation values and bipartite entanglement entropy. We explain these oscillations deep in the many-body localized spin-glass regime via a simple theoretical model. From perturbation theory, we predict the timescales up to which our analytical description is valid and confirm it with numerical simulations. Finally, we study the correlation length dynamics, which, after a long-time plateau, resume growing in line with renormalization group (RG) expectations. Our work suggests that RG predictions can be quantitatively tested against numerical simulations and experiments, potentially enabling microscopic descriptions of dynamical phases in large systems.

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Phys. Rev. B 111, L220202– Published 12 June, 2025
  • Received 11 March 2025
  • Revised 8 May 2025
  • Accepted 19 May 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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