Statics and dynamics of non-Hermitian many-body localization

Abstract

Many-body localized phases retain memory of their initial conditions in disordered interacting systems with unitary dynamics. The stability of the localized phase due to the breakdown of unitarity is of relevance to experiment in the presence of dissipation. Here we investigate the impact of non-Hermitian perturbations on many-body localization. We focus on the interacting Hatano-Nelson model which breaks unitarity via asymmetric hopping. We explore the phase diagram for the mid-spectrum eigenstates as a function of the interaction strength and the non-Hermiticity. In contrast to the non-interacting case, our findings are consistent with a two-step approach to the localized regime. We also study the dynamics of the particle imbalance. We show that the distribution of relaxation time scales differs qualitatively between the localized and ergodic phases. Our findings suggest the possibility of an intermediate dynamical regime in disordered open systems.