Many-body localization from a one-particle perspective in the disordered one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model

Abstract

We numerically investigate 1D Bose-Hubbard chains with onsite disorder by means of exact diagonalization. A primary focus of our work is on characterizing Fock-space localization in this model from the single-particle perspective. For this purpose, we compute the one-particle density matrix (OPDM) in many-body eigenstates. We show that the natural orbitals (the eigenstates of the OPDM) are extended in the ergodic phase and real-space localized when one enters into the MBL phase. Furthermore, the distributions of occupations of the natural orbitals can be used as measures of Fock-space localization in the respective basis. Consistent with previous studies, we observe signatures of a transition from the ergodic to the many-body localized (MBL) regime when increasing the disorder strength. We further demonstrate that Fock-space localization, albeit weaker, is also evidently present in the distribution of the physical densities in the MBL regime, both for soft- and hardcore bosons. Moreover, the full distribution of the densities of the physical particles provides a one-particle measure for the detection of the ergodic-MBL transition which could be directly accessed in experiments with ultra-cold gases.