Asymptotic Localization in the Bose-Hubbard Model

TL;DR

This paper rigorously investigates asymptotic localization in the Bose-Hubbard model, demonstrating limited transport and thermalization at high particle densities, and introduces a novel many-body Nekhoroshev estimate approach.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous proof of asymptotic localization in the Bose-Hubbard model using a new many-body Nekhoroshev estimate, highlighting localization without eigenstate hybridization.

Findings

Transport and thermalization are suppressed at high densities.

Localization persists beyond perturbation theory in the large particle limit.

Localization cannot be solely inferred from eigenstate hybridization.

Abstract

We consider the Bose-Hubbard model. Our focus is on many-body localization, which was described by many authors in such models, even in the absence of disorder. Since our work is rigorous, and since we believe that the localization in this type of models is not strictly valid in the infinite-time limit, we necessarily restrict our study to 'asymptotic localization': We prove that transport and thermalization are small beyond perturbation theory in the limit of large particle density. Our theorem takes the form of a many-body Nekhoroshev estimate. An interesting and new aspect of this model is the following: even though our analysis proceeds by perturbation in the hopping, the localization can not be inferred from a lack of hybridization between zero-hopping eigenstates.