Speaker: François Huveneers (U Paris-Dauphine)
Web: https://www.ceremade.dauphine.fr/~huveneers/

Title:
Many Body localization: the effect of thermal spots

Abstract:
Many-body localization (MBL) emerged a bit more than a decade ago as a 
new exciting field in condensed matter physics. A characteristic feature 
of MBL materials is that they don’t thermalize and retain the memory of 
initial conditions “forever” (in ideal world). I will discuss our recent 
investigations on the influence of thermal spots on the stability of the 
localized phase. The talk will be made of two parts. First I will analyze 
the effect of a single spot on an Anderson insulator (i.e. a gas of 
non-interacting localized modes), and I will derive a sharp threshold on 
the localization length above which localization is destroyed. Second I 
will consider the more physically relevant situation where there is a 
density of such spots in the material and I will present a scenario for 
the transition to the ergodic phase driven by such spots. No prior 
knowledge of MBL physics will be assumed.