Detecting delocalization-localization transitions from full density distributions

Abstract

Characterizing the delocalization transition in closed quantum systems with a many-body localized phase is a key open question in the field of nonequilibrium physics. We exploit that localization of particles as realized in Anderson and standard many-body localization (MBL) implies Fock-space localization in single-particle basis sets characterized by a real-space index. Using a recently introduced quantitative measure for Fock-space localization computed from the density distributions, the occupation distance, we systematically study its scaling behavior across delocalozation transitions and identify critical points from scaling collapses of numerical data. Excellent agreement with literature results is found for the critical disorder strengths of noninteracting fermions, such as the one-dimensional Aubry-André and the three-dimensional Anderson model. We observe a distinctively different scaling behavior in the case of interacting fermions with random disorder consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Finally, we use our measure to extract the transition point as a function of filling for interacting fermions.