Critical points of the three-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model from on-site atom number fluctuations

We discuss how positions of critical points of the three-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model can be accurately obtained from variance of the on-site atom number operator, which can be experimentally measured. The idea that we explore is that the derivative of the variance, with respect to the parameter driving the transition, has a pronounced maximum close to critical points. We show that Quantum Monte Carlo studies of this maximum lead to precise determination of critical points for the superfluid-Mott insulator transition in systems with mean number of atoms per lattice site equal to one, two, and three. We also extract from such data the correlation-length critical exponent through the finite-size scaling analysis and discuss how the derivative of the variance can be reliably computed from numerical data for the variance. The same conclusions apply to the derivative of the nearest-neighbor correlation function, which can be obtained from routinely measured time-of-flight images.Comment: 15 pages, corrected typos, updated references, improvements in discussio

Long persistence of localization in a disordered anharmonic chain beyond the atomic limit

We establish rigorous bounds on dissipative transport in the disordered Klein-Gordon chain with quartic on-site potential, governed by a parameter $\lambda$. At $\lambda = 0$, the chain is harmonic and transport is fully suppressed by Anderson localization. For the anharmonic system at $\lambda > 0$, our results show that dissipative effects set in on time scales that grow faster than any polynomial in $1/\lambda$, as $\lambda\to 0$. From a technical perspective, the main novelty of our work is that we do not restrict ourselves to the atomic limit, i.e. we develop perturbation theory around the harmonic system with a fixed hopping strength between near oscillators. This allows us to compare our mathematical results with previous numerical work and contribute to the resolution of an ongoing debate in the physics community, as we explain in a companion paper arXiv:2308.10572

Slow dissipation and spreading in disordered classical systems: A direct comparison between numerics and mathematical bounds

We study the breakdown of Anderson localization in the one-dimensional nonlinear Klein-Gordon chain, a prototypical example of a disordered classical many-body system. A series of numerical works indicate that an initially localized wave packet spreads polynomially in time, while analytical studies rather suggest a much slower spreading. Here, we focus on the decorrelation time in equilibrium. On the one hand, we provide a mathematical theorem establishing that this time is larger than any inverse power law in the effective anharmonicity parameter $\lambda$, and on the other hand our numerics show that it follows a power law for a broad range of values of $\lambda$. This numerical behavior is fully consistent with the power law observed numerically in spreading experiments, and we conclude that the state-of-the-art numerics may well be unable to capture the long-time behavior of such classical disordered systems

Rigorous and simple results on very slow thermalization, or quasi-localization, of the disordered quantum chain

This paper originates from lectures delivered at the summer school "Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics XV" in Bruneck, Italy, in 2021. We give a brief and limited introduction into ergodicity-breaking induced by disorder. As the title suggests, we include a simple yet rigorous and original result: For a strongly disordered quantum chain, we exhibit a full set of quasi-local quantities whose dynamics is negligible up to times of order $\exp\{ c (\log W)^{2-\epsilon}\}$, with $\epsilon < 1$, $c$ a numerical constant, and $W$ the disorder strength. Such a result, that is often referred to as "quasi-localization", can in principle be obtained in other systems as well, but for a disordered quantum chain, its proof is relatively short and transparent.Comment: To be published in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Application

Rigorous and simple results on very slow thermalization, or quasi-localization, of the disordered quantum chain

This paper originates from lectures delivered at the summer school “Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics XV” in Bruneck, Italy, in 2021. We give a brief and limited introduction into ergodicity-breaking induced by disorder. As the title suggests, we include a simple yet rigorous and original result: For a strongly disordered quantum chain, we exhibit a full set of quasi-local quantities whose dynamics is negligible up to times of order exp{c(logW)2−ϵ}, with ϵ&lt;1, c a numerical constant, and W the disorder strength. Such a result, that is often referred to as “quasi-localization”, can in principle be obtained in other systems as well, but for a disordered quantum chain, its proof is relatively short and transparent.</p