Avalanches and many-body resonances in many-body localized systems

Many-body localization (MBL) is a mechanism by which quantum chains with strong enough disorder can avoid thermalization. Here, the authors define and locate several distinct landmarks having to do with thermalization, rare many-body resonances, and so-called thermal avalanches in systems that can exhibit MBL. These landmarks are well separated in the strength of the disorder, and the estimate of where MBL breaks down in asymptotically large systems is far beyond what is usually pointed to as the MBL transition.