Many-body localization and delocalization in the two-dimensional continuum

We discuss whether localization in the two-dimensional continuum can be stable in the presence of short-range interactions. We conclude that, for an impurity model of disorder, if the system is prepared below a critical temperature TT₂, perturbation theory fails to converge, which we interpret as interaction-mediated delocalization. We calculate the boundary of the region of perturbative stability of localization in the interaction-strength-temperature plane. We also discuss the behavior in a speckle disorder (relevant for cold-atom experiments) and conclude that perturbation theory about the noninteracting phase diverges for arbitrarily weak interactions with speckle disorder, suggesting that many-body localization in the two-dimensional continuum cannot survive away from the impurity limit.