English

Localization Transitions in a Half-Filled Helical Aubry-Andr\'e Model

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2026-05-19 v1

Abstract

We study localization in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic lattice obtained by extending the Aubry-Andr\'e model with an additional NNth-neighbor hopping term of strength JNJ_{N}. This long-range tunneling couples successive windings of an effective helical chain and introduces a second control parameter beyond the quasiperiodic potential strength Δ\Delta. Working with noninteracting fermions (typically at half filling), we diagnose the delocalization-localization transition using extensions of the modern theory of polarization. Specifically, we compute the polarization amplitudes of the many-body Slater-determinant ground state and construct a geometric Binder cumulant from polarization amplitudes. The critical potential where the localization transition happens is extracted from the sign change (zero crossing) of the geometric Binder cumulant. We map critical potential as a function of JNJ_N and the helical range NN, finding that stronger helical hopping generally stabilizes the extended phase (shifting critical potential upward), while the NN-dependence can display pronounced commensurability-induced spikes. We further compare the geometric Binder cumulant with the Fermi gap, which remains near zero at small values of potential and opens in the same parameter regime where the geometric Binder cumulant departs from extended phase. Finally, to take a controlled thermodynamic limit along Fibonacci system sizes, we employ a Zeckendorf-shift construction that fixes the many-body sector consistently as system size goes to infinity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.18064,
  title  = {Localization Transitions in a Half-Filled Helical Aubry-Andr\'e Model},
  author = {Taylan Yildiz and B. Tanatar and Balázs Hetényi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.18064},
  year   = {2026}
}