Disorder-induced localization in a strongly correlated atomic Hubbard gas

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 114; no. 8; p. 083002
• Main Authors: Kondov, S S, McGehee, W R, Xu, W, DeMarco, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 27-02-2015
• Subjects: Correlation; Electronics; Lattices; Localization; Optical lattices; Position (location); Quantum theory; Transport
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.114.083002

We observe the emergence of a disorder-induced insulating state in a strongly interacting atomic Fermi gas trapped in an optical lattice. This closed quantum system, free of a thermal reservoir, realizes the disordered Fermi-Hubbard model, which is a minimal model for strongly correlated electronic solids. We observe disorder-induced localization of a metallic state through measurements of mass transport. By varying the lattice potential depth, we detect interaction-driven delocalization of the disordered insulating state. We also measure localization that persists as the temperature of the gas is raised. These behaviors are consistent with many-body localization, which is a novel paradigm for understanding localization in interacting quantum systems at nonzero temperature.