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Wave-Turbulence Origin of the Instability of Anderson Localization against Many-Body Interactions

Zhen Wang, Weicheng Fu, Yong Zhang, Hong Zhao

2020Physical Review Letters41 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Whether Anderson localization is robust against many-body interactions and, closely related, whether a disordered many-body system can be thermalized are long outstanding issues. In this Letter, we address these issues with the wave-turbulence theory. We show that, in general, the thermalization time in one-dimensional disordered lattice systems is inversely proportional to the squared interaction strength in the thermodynamic limit. It leads to the conclusion that such systems can always be thermalized by arbitrarily weak many-body interactions and thus the localized states are unstable.

Topics & Concepts

InstabilityTurbulencePhysicsAnderson localizationStatistical physicsClassical mechanicsMechanicsCondensed matter physicsQuantum many-body systemsCold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein CondensatesRandom lasers and scattering media