Semiclassical dynamics of a disordered two-dimensional Hubbard model with long-range interactions

Abstract

Quench dynamics in a two-dimensional system of interacting fermions is analyzed within the semiclassical truncated Wigner approximation (TWA). The models with short-range and long-range interactions are considered. We show that in the latter case, the TWA is very accurate, becoming asymptotically exact in the infinite-range limit, provided that the semiclassical Hamiltonian is correctly identified. Within the TWA, different dynamical timescales of charges and spins can be clearly distinguished. Interestingly, for a weak and moderate disorder strength, we observe subdiffusive behavior of charges, while spins exhibit diffusive dynamics. At strong disorder, the quantum Fisher information shows logarithmic growth in time with a slower increase for charges than for spins. It is shown that in contrast to the short-range model, strong inhomogeneities such as domain walls in the initial state can significantly slow down thermalization dynamics, especially at weak disorder. This behavior can put additional challenges in designing cold-atom experimental protocols aimed to analyze possible many-body localization in such systems. While within this approach we cannot make any definite statements about the existence of a many-body localized phase, we see a very fast crossover as a function of disorder strength from rapidly thermalizing to a slow glassy like regime both for the short-range and long-range models.