Coupling Identical one-dimensional Many-Body Localized Systems

Abstract

We experimentally study the effects of coupling one-dimensional many-body localized systems with identical disorder. Using a gas of ultracold fermions in an optical lattice, we artificially prepare an initial charge density wave in an array of 1D tubes with quasirandom on-site disorder and monitor the subsequent dynamics over several thousand tunneling times. We find a strikingly different behavior between many-body localization and Anderson localization. While the noninteracting Anderson case remains localized, in the interacting case any coupling between the tubes leads to a delocalization of the entire system.