Exploring the many-body localization transition in two dimensions

Understand

One fundamental assumption in statistical physics is that generic closed quantum many-body systems thermalize under their own dynamics.

• Recently, the emergence of many-body localized systems has questioned this concept, challenging our understanding of the connection between statistical physics and quantum mechanics.
• Here we report on the observation of a many-body localization transition between thermal and localized phases for bosons in a two-dimensional disordered optical lattice.
• With our single site resolved measurements we track the relaxation dynamics of an initially prepared out-of-equilibrium density pattern and find strong evidence for a diverging length scale when approaching the localization transition.