Possible experimental manifestations of the many-body localization

Abstract

Recently, it was predicted that if all one-electron states in a noninteracting disordered system are localized, the interaction between electrons in the absence of coupling to phonons leads to a finite-temperature metal-insulator transition. Here, we show that even in the presence of a weak coupling to phonons the transition manifests itself (i) in the nonlinear conduction, leading to a bistable $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ curve, and (ii) by a dramatic enhancement of the nonequilibrium current noise near the transition.