Coexistence of localized and extended states in the Anderson model with long-range hopping

TL;DR

This paper investigates the coexistence of localized and extended states in the Anderson model with long-range hopping, revealing a transition at the zero energy level and the formation of quasi-localized states with system size-dependent behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates that long-range hopping causes a transition from localized to quasi-localized states at zero energy, with implications for wave function structure and localization properties.

Findings

Wave functions remain short-range localized for all energies below zero.

A transition from localized to quasi-localized states occurs at zero energy.

System size determines whether states appear localized or delocalized.

Abstract

We study states arising from fluctuations in the disorder potential in systems with long-range hopping. Here, contrary to systems with short-range hopping, the optimal fluctuations of disorder responsible for the formation of the states in the gap, are not rendered shallow and long-range when $E$ approaches the band edge ($E\to 0$). Instead, they remain deep and short-range. The corresponding electronic wave functions also remain short-range-localized for all $E<0$. This behavior has striking implications for the structure of the wave functions slightly above $E=0$. By a study of finite systems, we demonstrate that the wave functions $\Psi_E$ transform from a localized to a quasi-localized type upon crossing the $E=0$ level, forming resonances embedded in the $E>0$ continuum. The quasi-localized $\Psi_{E>0}$ consists of a short-range core that is essentially the same as $\Psi_{E=0}$ and a delocalized tail extending to the boundaries of the system. The amplitude of the tail is small, but it decreases with $r$ slowly. Its contribution to the norm of the wave function dominates for sufficiently large system sizes, $L\gg L_c(E)$; such states behave as delocalized ones. In contrast, in small systems, $L\ll L_c(E)$, quasi-localized states are overwhelmingly dominated by the localized cores and are effectively localized.