MANY-BODY-LOCALIZATION IN ONE DIMENSION

BRUNO NACHTERGAELE AND GÜNTER STOLZ

1. Introduction
In one dimension, localization of finite systems should imply localization on all scales. The
idea is that a localized region blocks propagation through the chain. Blocking here means
that the time to propagate across is exponentially large in the size of the region. We prove
here how this follows from localization expressed by a zero-velocity Lieb-Robinson bound
and a standard applications of Lieb-Robinson bounds. For localization to be seen in the
infinite chain, one has to either show the existence of large localized regions (log L size may
by itself just not be enough) or do some kind of multi-scale argument. Here, I have only
looked at the effect of a single finite interval where there is dynamical localization.
Let L, M and R be three consecutive finite intervals in Z. The idea is that we have
dynamical localization for the finite system on M . Then we couple M to possibly non-
localized pieces of chain to the left and the right of it. For simplicity, we will assume we only
have nearest neighbor interactions. The goal is to show that the region M acts as a barrier
to propagation between L and R.

1.1. Interaction Dynamics. The middle interval M , where we will later assume the model
satisfies a zero-velocity Lieb-Robinson bound, is coupled to intervals on the right and the
left, which we will together denote by M c and let Ψ denote the nearest neighbor interaction
coupling M and M c . The Hamiltonian for Λ = M ∪ M c can then be written as
(1.1) HΛ = H0 + Ψ, H0 = HM + HM c .
We will study the dynamics generated by HΛ by representing it in the interaction picture:
(1.2) τtΛ = τtI ◦ τt0
with
(1.3) τt0 (A) = eitH0 Ae−itH0 , τtI (A) = U (t)∗ AU (t),
and
d
(1.4) U (t) = −iΨ(t)U (t), Ψ(t) = τt0 (Ψ).
dt
c
Since Ψ is finite-range and τt0 = τtM ⊗τtM , Ψ(t) can be written as a finite sum of the following
form:
X
(1.5) Ψ(t) = τtL (ξαL ) ⊗ τtM (φLα ) ⊗ 1l + 1l ⊗ τtM (φR R R
α ) ⊗ τt (ξα ),
α

where the three tensor factors are in AL , AM , and AR . Under the assumption of a zero-
velocity Lieb-Robinson bound for τtM , routine properties of quasi-local maps lead to the
1
 2 B. NACHTERGAELE AND G. STOLZ

following decomposition of Ψ(t):

|M |
X
(1.6) τtM (φK
α) = φK
α,n (t), K = L, R,
n=1

and where φK K
α,n ∈ AMnK , and Mn are the n sites in M nearest to K:

(1.7) MnK = {x ∈ M | d(x, K) ≤ n}, K = L, R.

φK
α,n can be given concretely as a difference of partial traces:

(1.8) φK M K M K
α,n = TrHΛ\M K τt (φα ) − TrHΛ\M K τt (φα ).
n n−1

We will assume here we have a bound of the form

−µn
(1.9) E(kφK
α,n (t)k) ≤ Ce , K = L, R,
for some µ > 0, and proceed for now as if this bound holds deterministically.

1.2. Propagation Bound. For the purpose of deriving this estimate, we may consider
system in L and R as sitting at a single site each in a new finite volume Λ̃. M , however,
will continue to be an interval of length |M |, i.e., Λ̃ = {L} ∪ M ∪ {R}. We now consider
A ∈ A{L} , B ∈ A{R} . For the purposes of deriving a Lieb-Robinson bound, we may now
c
ignore τtM , because it is purely on-site, and also ignore τtM , because τtM (A) = A. For
concreteness, suppose M = [a, b] ⊂ Z. τtI is generated by a time-dependent interaction Φ
with the following property: for Z ⊂ Λ̃
( 1
≤ CkΨke− 2 µn if Z = {L} ∪ [a, a + n] or Z = [b − n, b] ∪ {R}
boundPhi (1.10) kΦ(Z, t)k
=0 else .

In order to estimate k[τtI (A), B]k, with A ∈ AL and B ∈ AR , we now partition Λ into two
parts, ΛA and ΛB , defined as follows:
(1.11) ΛA = {x ∈ Λ | d(x, L) ≤ |b − a|/2|}, ΛB = Λ \ ΛA ,
and we describe the interaction between the two parts with ΦI :
(
Φ(Z, t) if Z ∩ ΛA 6= ∅ and Z ∩ ΛB 6= ∅
(1.12) ΦI (Z, t) =
0 else
boundPhi
and we set Φ0 (Z, t) = Φ(Z, t) − ΦI (Z, t). Using (1.10) we can estimate the interaction
Hamiltonian given by ΦI :
X 2
(1.13) k ΦI (Z, t)k ≤ CkΨk −µ
e−µ|b−a|/2 .
Z⊂Λ
1 − e
I
With the corresponding decomposition of the dynamics τtI = τtΦ ◦τtΦ0 , the fact that τtΦ0 (A) =
basicestimate
A, and using the elementary estimate (??) we obtain
|t|e−µ|b−a|/2
(1.14) k[τtI (A), B]k ≤ 8CkΨkkAkkBk .
1 − e−µ
 MBL IN ONE DIMENSION 3

1.3. A chain of weakly coupled dynamically localized intervals. For an infinite chain
with an infinite number of dynamically localized finite intervals, following the same reasoning
as above, we can reduce the problem to estimating propagation in a sequence localized
intervals of lenghts Lk that are coupled across with an interaction of magnitude e−µLk /2 .
Using the local Lieb-Robinson bound sketched below, you find that propagation in such a
1
chain has an average velocity bounded above by e− 2 µhLi , where hLi is the average length of
the localized intervals:
N
1 X
(1.15) hLi = Lk ,
N k=1
where the number of localized intervals is N (in some long piece of the chain). Would we be
able to show that this average length diverges in the limit of an infinite chain? It is clear
from ergodicity that localized intervals of a given length L0 occur with a finite density in the
infinite chain. But this is not sufficient. It is also not sufficient that the length of longest
localized interval diverges. Perhaps it would be helpful to look in detail at the disordered
XY chain to see what one has there.
Department of Mathematics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616
E-mail address: bxn@math.ucdavis.edu

Department of Mathematics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL

35294 USA
E-mail address: stolz@math.uab.edu