Title:Many-body localization, quantum heat baths, thermal equilibration and heat transport
Abstract:As first argued by Anderson (1958) and more
recently and thoroughly by Basko, Aleiner and Altshuler, a quantum
system of many degrees of freedom with quenched randomness may be
localized and fail to thermally equilibrate. There can be a dynamic
phase transition, a "mobility edge", as one varies the parameters
and/or the energy density of the system, between the ergodic phase
where the system can serve as its own heat bath and does equilibrate,
and the many-body localized phase where it does not. I will attempt
to precisely define what these words mean, and report on our attempts
to investigate the nature of this phase transition.