title: Exploring the many-body localization transition in two dimensions.
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.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany. jae-yoon.choi@mpq.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Jae-yoon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hild
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeiher
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schauß
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rubio-Abadal
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Tarik
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yefsah
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Vedika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Khemani
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Huse
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany. Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 80799 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Immanuel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gross