Renormalization group analysis of the many-body localization transition in the random-field XXZ chain

The spectral properties of the Heisenberg spin-1/2 chain with random fields are analyzed in light of recent works on the renormalization-group flow of the Anderson model in infinite dimension. We reconstruct the beta function of the order parameter from the numerical data, and observe that it may not admit a one-parameter scaling form and a simple Wilson-Fisher fixed point. Rather, it appears to be more compatible with a two-parameter, Berezinskii–Kosterlitz-Thouless-like flow with a line of fixed points (the many-body localized phase) terminating at the localization transition critical point. We argue that this renormalization group framework provides a more coherent and intuitive explanation of numerical data, up to the system sizes available with the present technology.