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Transient localization from fractionalization: Vanishingly small energy transport in gapless quantum magnets

Shi Feng1,2,*, Penghao Zhu3, Johannes Knolle1,2,4, and Michael Knap1,2

  • *Contact author: shi.feng@tum.de
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 034423 – Published 21 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/crq3-l1r3

Abstract

In this work, we investigate zero-temperature energy transport in a gapless quantum magnet. We find that suppressed energy transport can arise at low frequencies due to transient localization from fractionalization, even in the absence of extrinsic defects or disorder. Concretely, we consider a Kitaev ladder model, whose spin degrees of freedom fractionalize into visons and spinons, in a uniform magnetic field. For moderate magnetic fields, visons are heavy and act as quasistatic disorder that induces transient localization of light spinons even in the translation-invariant model and at zero temperature, which strongly suppresses the residual transport.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 034423– Published 21 July, 2026
  • Received 23 September 2025
  • Revised 20 March 2026
  • Accepted 1 July 2026
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