Critical level statistics at the many-body localization transition region

Abstract

Abstract We study the critical level statistics at the many-body localization (MBL) transition region in random spin systems. By employing the inter-sample randomness as indicator, we manage to locate the MBL transition point in both orthogonal and unitary models. We further count the nth order gap ratio distributions at the transition region up to n = 4, and find they fit well with the short-range plasma model with inverse temperature β = 1 for orthogonal model and β = 2 for unitary. These critical level statistics are argued to be universal by comparing results from systems both with and without total S z conservation. We also point out that these critical distributions can emerge from the spectrum of a Poisson ensemble, which indicates the thermal-MBL transition point is more affected by the MBL phase rather than thermal phase.