Phase Diagrams and Phase Transitions

2019 Many-body localization, thermalization, and entanglement Dmitry A. Abanin et al

The phase diagrams that contain MBL phases can be tuned by a variety of parameters, including disorder/interaction strength, kinetic energy, etc.

Note, that by construction, MBL phases are non-thermalizing, and thus the transition into these phases cannot be driven thermodynamically, e.g. by gradually changing temperature. However, the states can be prepared and studied experimentally by means of "quenches" where parameters are changed abruptly.

Canonical phase transitions (classical or quantum, but not topological) are characterized by a change in an order parameter (e.g. magnetization). The closest analog that has been identified for MBL transitions is the entanglement entropy: in the MBL state entanglement is short ranged, while for a typical thermal state, it is long ranged.