Many-body-localization transition: strong multifractality spectrum for matrix elements of local operators

For short-ranged disordered quantum models in one dimension, the many-body-localization is analyzed via the adaptation to the many-body context (Serbyn et al 2015 Phys. Rev. X 5 041047) of the Thouless point of view on the Anderson transition: the question is whether a local interaction between two long chains is able to reshuffle completely the eigenstates (delocalized phase with a volume-law entanglement) or whether the hybridization between tensor states remains limited (many-body-localized phase with an area-law entanglement). The central object is thus the level of hybridization induced by the matrix elements of local operators, as compared with the difference of diagonal energies. The multifractal analysis of these matrix elements of local operators is used to analyze the corresponding statistics of resonances. Our main conclusion is that the critical point is characterized by the strong-multifractality spectrum $f(0⩽\alpha ⩽2)=\frac{\alpha }{2}$, well known in the context of Anderson localization in spaces of effective infinite dimensionality, where the size of the Hilbert space grows exponentially with the volume. Finally, the possibility of a delocalized non-ergodic phase near criticality is discussed. (paper: disordered systems, classical and quantum)