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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Interaction-enhanced many-body localization in a generalized Aubry-André model

Ke Huang1, DinhDuy Vu2,3, Sankar Das Sarma2, and Xiao Li1,*

  • 1Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 2Condensed Matter Theory Center and Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 3Department of Physics, Harvard University, Massachusetts 02138, USA

  • *xiao.li@cityu.edu.hk
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022054 – Published 7 June, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L022054

Abstract

We study the many-body localization (MBL) transition in a generalized Aubry-André model (also known as the GPD model) introduced by Ganeshan, Pixley, and Das Sarma [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 146601 (2015)]. In contrast to MBL in other disordered or quasiperiodic models, the interaction seems to unexpectedly enhance MBL in the GPD model in some parameter range. To understand this counterintuitive result, we demonstrate that the highest-energy single-particle band in the GPD model is unstable against weak disorder, which leads to this surprising MBL phenomenon in the interacting model. We develop a mean-field theory description to understand the coupling between extended and localized states, which we validate using extensive exact diagonalization and modified density matrix renormalization group (DMRG-X) numerical results.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L022054– Published 7 June, 2024
  • Received 4 June 2023
  • Revised 28 December 2023
  • Accepted 16 April 2024
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