2025/09/16 by Yule Ma, Ma, Yule, Qianqian Chen +7
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum many-body systems #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.13420
openalex publication_date 2025/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Thermalization in isolated quantum systems is governed by the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, while strong disorder can induce its breakdown via many-body localization. Here we show that disorder can also generate a narrow band of thermal eigenstates embedded in an otherwise non-thermal spectrum. We illustrate this generic mechanism using paradigmatic spin-1 models, including Heisenberg, XY, and Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) models with several types of disorder. By analyzing their level statistics, entanglement properties and quench dynamics, we show that the disorder-induced states are genuinely thermal and we trace their origin to the null space of the disorder term in the Hamiltonian. Our results demonstrate that disorder can give rise to an unexpected coexistence of thermal and non-thermal dynamics within the same many-body spectrum.