Scientific advance is often driven by identifying conceptually simple models underlying complex phenomena. This process commonly ignores imperfections which, however, might give rise to non-trivial collective behavior. For example, already a small amount of disorder can dramatically change the transport properties of a system compared to the underlying simple model. While systems with disordered potentials were already studied in detail, experimental investigations on systems with disordered hopping are still in its infancy. To this end, we experimentally study a dipole–dipole-interacting three-dimensional Rydberg system and map it onto a simple XY model with random couplings by spectroscopic evidence. We discuss the localization–delocalization crossover emerging in the model and present experimental signatures of it. Our results demonstrate that Rydberg systems are a useful platform to study random hopping models with the ability to access the microscopic degrees of freedom. This will allow to study transport processes and localization phenomena in random hopping models with a high level of control.

科学进步通常是通过识别复杂现象背后的概念简单模型来推动的。这个过程通常会忽略不完善之处，然而，这些不完善之处可能会导致不平凡的集体行为。例如，与基本的简单模型相比，已经有少量无序可以显着改变系统的传输特性。虽然已经详细研究了具有无序电位的系统，但对具有无序跳跃的系统的实验研究仍处于起步阶段。为此，我们通过实验研究偶极-偶极相互作用的三维里德堡系统，并通过光谱证据将其映射到具有随机耦合的简单 XY 模型上。我们讨论了模型中出现的定位-离域交叉，并展示了它的实验特征。我们的结果表明，里德堡系统是研究随机跳跃模型的有用平台，能够访问微观自由度。这将允许在具有高度控制的随机跳跃模型中研究传输过程和定位现象。