Probing the many-body localized spin-glass phase through quench dynamics

Abstract

Eigenstates of quantum many-body systems are often used to define phases of matter in and out of equilibrium; however, experimentally accessing highly excited eigenstates is a challenging task, calling for alternative strategies to dynamically probe nonequilibrium phases. In this work, we characterize the dynamical properties of a disordered spin chain, focusing on the spin-glass regime. Using tensor-network simulations, we observe oscillatory behavior of local expectation values and bipartite entanglement entropy. We explain these oscillations deep in the many-body localized spin glass regime via a simple theoretical model. From perturbation theory, we predict the timescales up to which our analytical description is valid and confirm it with numerical simulations. Finally, we study the correlation length dynamics, which, after a long-time plateau, resumes growing in line with renormalization group (RG) expectations. Our work suggests that RG predictions can be quantitatively tested against numerical simulations and experiments, potentially enabling microscopic descriptions of dynamical phases in large systems.