Exploring disordered quantum spin models with a multilayer multiconfigurational approach

Abstract

Numerical simulations of quantum spin models are crucial for a profound understanding of many-body phenomena in a variety of research areas in physics. An outstanding problem is the availability of methods to tackle systems that violate area-laws of entanglement entropy. Such scenarios cover a wide range of compelling physical situations including disordered quantum spin systems among others. In this work, we employ a numerical technique referred to as multi-layer multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) to evaluate the ground state of several disordered spin models. ML-MCTDH has previously been used to study problems of high-dimensional quantum dynamics in molecular and ultracold physics but is here applied to study spin systems for the first time. We exploit the inherent flexibility of the method to present results in one and two spatial dimensions and treat challenging setups that incorporate long-range interactions as well as disorder. Our results suggest that the hierarchical multi-layering inherent to ML-MCTDH allows to tackle a wide range of quantum many-body problems such as spin dynamics of varying dimensionality.