Despite tremendous theoretical efforts to understand subtleties of the many-body localization (MBL) transition, many questions remain open, in particular concerning its critical properties. Here we make the key observation that MBL in one dimension is accompanied by a spin freezing mechanism which causes chain breaks in the thermodynamic limit. Using analytical and numerical approaches, we show that such chain breaks directly probe the typical localization length and that their scaling properties at the MBL transition agree with the Kosterlitz-Thouless scenario predicted by phenomenological renormalization group approaches.

中文翻译：

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海森堡自旋链中多体定位转变时的链断裂和Kosterlitz-Thouless缩放

尽管进行了大量的理论努力来理解多体定位（MBL）转换的微妙之处，但许多问题仍然悬而未决，特别是关于其关键特性。在这里，我们进行了关键的观察，一维MBL伴随着旋转冻结机制，该机制导致热力学极限中的链断裂。使用分析和数值方法，我们表明这种链断裂直接探测了典型的定位长度，并且它们在MBL跃迁处的缩放性质与由现象学重新归一化组方法预测的Kosterlitz-Thouless场景一致。