Two-dimensional many-body localized systems coupled to a heat bath

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to explore how a two-dimensional many-body localized system interacts with a finite heat bath, revealing phase diagrams and information distribution patterns consistent with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel numerical approach to model 2D many-body localization coupled to a heat bath using shallow quantum circuits, aligning with experimental results.

Findings

Phase diagram dependent on filling fraction

Quantum mutual information distribution shows resonances

Localization features are consistent with experimental data

Abstract

We numerically investigate the effect of coupling a two-dimensional many-body localized system to a finite heat bath, using shallow quantum circuits as a variational ansatz. Specifically, we simulate optical lattice experiments with two components of ultracold bosons, where only one species is subject to a random disorder potential and the other acts as a heat bath. We obtain a filling fraction dependent phase diagram with a critical filling consistent with experiments. We also calculate two-point correlation functions and the quantum mutual information between sites. We observe a distribution of the quantum mutual information in the many-body localized regime which is consistent with the presence of resonances, similar to those observed in one-dimensional many-body localized systems.