Many-body localization is a unique physical phenomenon driven by interactions and disorder for which a quantum system can evade thermalization. Although the existence of a many-body localized phase is now well established in one-dimensional systems, its fate in higher dimensions is an open question. We present evidence for the occurrence of a transition to a many-body localized regime in a two-dimensional quantum dimer model with interactions and disorder. Our analysis is based on the results of large-scale simulations for static and dynamical properties of a consequent number of observables. Our results pave the way for a generic understanding of occurrence of a many-body localization transition in a dimension larger than one and highlight the unusual quantum dynamics that can be present in constrained systems.

• Received 27 February 2019
• Accepted 30 June 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.033154

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society