English

Effective field theory approach to many-body localization

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2017-03-29 v1

Abstract

We construct an analytic theory of many-body localization (MBL) in random spin chains. The approach is based on a first quantized perspective in which MBL is understood as a localization phenomenon on the high dimensional lattice defined by the discrete Hilbert space of the clean system. We construct a field theory on that lattice and apply it to discuss the stability of a weak disorder (`Wigner-Dyson') and a strong disorder (`Poisson') phase.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.00877,
  title  = {Effective field theory approach to many-body localization},
  author = {Alexander Altland and Tobias Micklitz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.00877},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure, supplementary material

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:39:22.905Z