Dynamics of a Many-Body-Localized System Coupled to a Bath

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a many-body-localized system relaxes when coupled to a bath, revealing that particle loss significantly affects the relaxation dynamics and encodes information about the localized state.

Contribution

It formulates a Lindblad equation based on local integrals of motion and maps quantum dynamics to classical rate equations, providing new insights into relaxation in localized systems.

Findings

Particle loss strongly influences relaxation dynamics.

Interactions affect the relaxation of observables under particle loss.

The approach links quantum localization to classical rate equations.

Abstract

Coupling a many-body-localized system to a dissipative bath necessarily leads to delocalization. Here, we investigate the nature of the ensuing relaxation dynamics and the information it holds on the many-body-localized state. We formulate the relevant Lindblad equation in terms of the local integrals of motion of the underlying localized Hamiltonian. This allows to map the quantum evolution deep in the localized state to tractable classical rate equations. We consider two different types of dissipation relevant to systems of ultra-cold atoms: dephasing due to inelastic scattering on the lattice lasers and particle loss. Only the latter mechanism shows a pronounced effects of interactions on the relaxation of observables.