title: Quasi-Many-Body Localization in Translation-Invariant Systems.
abstract: We examine localization phenomena associated with generic, high entropy, states of a translation-invariant, one-dimensional spin ladder. At early times, we find slow growth of entanglement entropy consistent with the known phenomenology of many-body localization in disordered, interacting systems. At intermediate times, however, anomalous diffusion sets in, leading to full spin polarization decay on an exponentially activated time scale. We identify a single length scale which parametrically controls both the spin transport times and the apparent divergence of the susceptibility to spin glass ordering. Ultimately, at the latest times, the exponentially slow anomalous diffusion gives way to diffusive thermal behavior. We dub the intermediate dynamical behavior, which persists over many orders of magnitude in time, quasi-many-body localization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: N Y
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.|Physics Department, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Laumann
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cirac
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lukin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moore