Exploring the many-body localization transition in two dimensions

Abstract

Bosons refusing to thermalize in 2D Messy, interacting quantum-mechanical systems are difficult to analyze theoretically. In a single spatial dimension, the calculations are still tractable, and experiments have recently confirmed the prediction that sufficiently strong disorder can disrupt the transport of interacting particles. In two dimensions, however, the theoretical blueprint is missing. Choi et al. used single-site imaging of cold 87 Rb atoms in an optical lattice to show that similar localization occurs in two-dimensional (2D) systems. The study highlights the power of quantum simulation to solve problems that are currently inaccessible to classical computing techniques. Science , this issue p. 1547