Probing entanglement in a many-body–localized system

Abstract

A logarithmic signature Some one-dimensional disordered interacting quantum systems have been theoretically predicted to display a property termed many-body localization (MBL), where the system retains the memory of its initial state and fails to thermalize. However, proving experimentally that something does not occur is tricky. Instead, physicists have proposed monitoring the entanglement entropy of the system, which should grow logarithmically with evolution time in an MBL system. Lukin et al. observed this characteristic logarithmic trend in a disordered chain of interacting atoms of rubidium-87. This method should be generalizable to other experimental platforms and higher dimensions. Science , this issue p. 256