Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 10: Quantum Gases (Bosons) I

Q 10.1: Talk

Monday, March 5, 2018, 10:30–10:45, K 2.020

Microscopy of many-body localization in one dimension — •Julian Léonard, Alexander Lukin, Matthew Rispoli, Robert Schittko, Eric Tai, and Markus Greiner — Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Many-body localization (MBL) challenges our understanding of thermalization in quantum systems. While non-equilibrium systems usually relax and approach thermal equilibrium, MBL systems remain in a state far from equilibrium.

We study this behaviour in a Bose-Hubbard chain that is subject to a controlled disorder potential. We start with a system at unity filling and prepare it in an out-of-equilibrium state by quenching the tunneling rate from zero a to a finite value. By performing site-resolved full counting statistics, we are able to locally measure the atom number distribution, determine the degree of thermalization, and extract the on-site entropy. We observe a breakdown of thermalization at high disorders, locally suppressed thermalization at the boundaries and map out the MBL transition.