Observation of energy-resolved many-body localization

Qiujiang Guo, Chen Cheng, Zheng-Hang Sun, Zixuan Song, Hekang Li, Zhen Wang, Wenhui Ren, Hang Dong, Dongning Zheng, Yu-Ran Zhang, Rubem Mondaini, Heng Fan & H. Wang

Many-body localization (MBL) describes a quantum phase where an isolated interacting system subject to sufficient disorder displays non-ergodic behaviour, evading thermal equilibrium that occurs under its own dynamics. Previously, the thermalization–MBL transition has been largely characterized with the growth of disorder. Here, we explore a new axis, reporting on an energy-resolved MBL transition using a 19-qubit programmable superconducting processor, which enables precise control and flexibility of both disorder strength and initial state preparation. We observe that the onset of localization occurs at different disorder strengths, with distinguishable energy scales, by measuring time-evolved observables and quantities related to many-body wave functions. Our results open avenues for the experimental exploration of many-body mobility edges in MBL systems, whose existence is widely debated due to the finiteness of the system size, and where exact simulations in classical computers become unfeasible.

Nature Physics volume 17, pages234–239(2021)

The published article is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-1035-1