Interplay of interaction and disorder in the steady state of an open quantum system

TL;DR

This paper investigates how interaction, tunneling, and disorder influence the steady state of an open quantum spin chain coupled to a tailored bath, revealing sensitivity to weak disorder and conditions for localization.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of dissipation on localization phenomena and identifies the conditions under which disorder induces localized steady states in open quantum systems.

Findings

Steady state is highly sensitive to weak disorder.

Finite disorder is necessary for localization without interaction.

Strong disorder leads to signatures of localization across regimes.

Abstract

Many types of dissipative processes can be found in nature or be engineered, and their interplay with a system can give rise to interesting phases of matter. Here we study the interplay among interaction, tunneling, and disorder in the steady state of a spin chain coupled to a tailored bath. We consider a dissipation which, in contrast to disorder, tends to generate a homogeneously polarized steady state. We find that the steady state can be highly sensitive even to weak disorder. We also establish that, in the presence of such dissipation, even in the absence of interaction, a finite amount of disorder is needed for localization. Last, we show that for strong disorder the system reveals signatures of localization both in the weakly and strongly interacting regimes.