Spread of Correlations in Strongly Disordered Lattice Systems with Long-Range Coupling

TL;DR

This paper studies how correlations spread in a disordered 1D lattice with long-range interactions, revealing a three-phase evolution from quadratic to linear to saturation, with a transition from ballistic to diffusive propagation at a specific interaction decay rate.

Contribution

It provides an analytical approximation for correlation dynamics in strongly disordered long-range systems and characterizes the transition from ballistic to diffusive propagation.

Findings

Correlation spread exhibits three phases: quadratic, linear, and saturation.

Analytical formulas accurately reproduce numerical simulation results.

Transition from ballistic to diffusive propagation occurs at decay exponent μ=1.

Abstract

We investigate the spread of correlations carried by an excitation in a 1-dimensional lattice system with high on-site energy disorder and long-range couplings with a power-law dependence on the distance ($\propto r^{-\mu}$). The increase in correlation between the initially quenched node and a given node exhibits three phases: quadratic in time, linear in time, and saturation. No further evolution is observed in the long time regime. We find an approximate solution of the model valid in the limit of strong disorder and reproduce the results of numerical simulations with analytical formulas. We also find the time needed to reach a given correlation value as a measure of the propagation speed. Because of the triple phase evolution of the correlation function the propagation changes its time dependence. In the particular case of $\mu=1$, the propagation starts as a ballistic motion, then, at a certain crossover time, turns into standard diffusion.