45 research outputs found
Interaction instability of localization in quasiperiodic systems
Integrable models form pillars of theoretical physics because they allow for
full analytical understanding. Despite being rare, many realistic systems can
be described by models that are close to integrable. Therefore, an important
question is how small perturbations influence the behavior of solvable models.
This is particularly true for many-body interacting quantum systems where no
general theorems about their stability are known. Here, we show that no such
theorem can exist by providing an explicit example of a one-dimensional
many-body system in a quasiperiodic potential whose transport properties
discontinuously change from localization to diffusion upon switching on
interaction. This demonstrates an inherent instability of a possible many-body
localization in a quasiperiodic potential at small interactions. We also show
how the transport properties can be strongly modified by engineering potential
at only a few lattice sites.Comment: 10 pages; (v2: additional explanations, data, and references