Stability of many-body localization in two dimensions
Abstract
Disordered quantum many-body systems pose one of the central challenges in condensed matter physics and quantum information science, as their dynamics are generally intractable for classical computation. Many-body localization (MBL), hypothesized to evade thermalization indefinitely under strong disorder, exemplifies this difficulty. Here, we study the stability of MBL in two dimensions using ultracold atoms in optical lattices with variable system sizes up to sites, well beyond the classically simulable regime. Using the imbalance as a probe, we trace the long-time dynamics under two distinctive disorder potentials: quasiperiodic and random disorder. For random disorder, the MBL crossover point shifts to higher disorder strength with increasing system size, consistent with the avalanche scenario. In contrast, with quasiperiodic disorder, we observe no clear system size dependence, suggesting possible stability of MBL in two dimensions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.20699,
title = {Stability of many-body localization in two dimensions},
author = {Junhyeok Hur and Joey Li and Byungjin Lee and Kiryang Kwon and Minseok Kim and Samgyu Hwang and Sumin Kim and Yong Soo Yu and Amos Chan and Thorsten Wahl and Jae-yoon Choi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.20699},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
17 pages, 12 figures