Boltzmann transport theory for many body localization

TL;DR

This paper develops a Boltzmann transport theory incorporating electron-electron interactions and dephasing to study many-body localization, revealing a first-order metal-insulator transition driven by dephasing effects.

Contribution

It generalizes the Wolfle-Vollhardt self-consistent equation to include electron correlations and dephasing, predicting a first-order many-body localization transition.

Findings

Identifies a many-body localization insulator-metal transition.

Finds the transition is first order, unlike traditional Anderson transition.

Suggests bimodal diffusion coefficient distribution causes the first order transition.

Abstract

We investigate a many-body localization transition based on a Boltzmann transport theory. Introducing weak localization corrections into a Boltzmann equation, Hershfield and Ambegaokar re-derived the Wolfle-Vollhardt self-consistent equation for the diffusion coefficient [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 34}, 2147 (1986)]. We generalize this Boltzmann equation framework, introducing electron-electron interactions into the Hershfield-Ambegaokar Boltzmann transport theory based on the study of Zala-Narozhny-Aleiner [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 64}, 214204 (2001)]. Here, not only Altshuler-Aronov corrections but also dephasing effects are taken into account. As a result, we obtain a self-consistent equation for the diffusion coefficient in terms of the disorder strength and temperature, which extends the Wolfle-Vollhardt self-consistent equation in the presence of electron correlations. Solving our self-consistent equation numerically, we find a many-body localization insulator-metal transition, where a metallic phase appears from dephasing effects dominantly instead of renormalization effects at high temperatures. Although this mechanism is consistent with that of recent seminal papers [Ann. Phys. (N. Y). {\bf 321}, 1126 (2006); Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 95}, 206603 (2005)], we find that our three-dimensional metal-insulator transition belongs to the first order transition, which differs from the Anderson metal-insulator transition described by the Wolfle-Vollhardt self-consistent theory. We speculate that a bimodal distribution function for the diffusion coefficient is responsible for this first order phase transition.