The AKLT spin chain is the prototypical example of a frustration-free quantum spin system with a spectral gap above its ground state. Affleck, Kennedy, Lieb, and Tasaki also conjectured that the two-dimensional version of their model on the hexagonal lattice exhibits a spectral gap. In this paper, we introduce a family of variants of the two-dimensional AKLT model depending on a positive integer n, which is defined by decorating the edges of the hexagonal lattice with one-dimensional AKLT spin chains of length n. We prove that these decorated models are gapped for all n ≥ 3.

Abstract. We consider the isotropic or anisotropic XY spin chain in the presence of a transversal random magnetic field, with parameters given by random variables. It is shown that eigenfunction correlator localization of the corresponding effective one-particle Hamiltonian implies a uniform area law bound in expectation for the bipartite entanglement entropy of all eigenstates of the XY chain, i.e. a form of many-body localization at all energies. Here entanglement with respect to arbitrary connected subchains of the chain can be considered. Applications where the required eigenfunction correlator bounds are known include the isotropic XY chain in random field as well as the anisotropic chain in strong or strongly disordered random field. MSC: 81P40, 82B44

Abstract. We consider the dynamics of the quantum XY chain with disorder under the general assumption that the expectation of the eigenfunction correlator of the associated oneparticle Hamiltonian satisfies a decay estimate typical of Anderson localization. We show that, starting from a broad class of product initial states, entanglement remains bounded for all times. For the XX chain, we also derive bounds on the particle transport which, in particular, show that the density profile of initial states that consist of fully occupied and empty intervals, only have significant dynamics near the edges of those intervals, uniformly for all times.

We review several aspects of Many-Body Localization-like properties exhibited by the disordered XY chains: localization properties of the energy eigenstates and thermal states, propagation bounds of Lieb-Robinson type, decay of correlation functions, absence of particle transport, bounds on the bipartite entanglement, and bounded entanglement growth under the dynamics. We also prove new results on the absence of energy transport and Fock space localization. All these properties are made accessible to mathematical analysis due to the exact mapping of the XY chain to a system of quasi-free fermions given by the Jordan-Wigner transformation. Motivated by these results we discuss conjectured properties of more general disordered quantum spin and other systems as possible directions for future mathematical research.

For disordered harmonic oscillator systems over the d-dimensional lattice, we consider the problem of finding the bipartite entanglement of the uniform ensemble of the energy eigenstates associated with a particular number of modes. Such ensemble define a class of mixed, non-Gaussian entangled states that are labeled, by the energy of the system, in an increasing order. We develop a novel approach to find the exact logarithmic negativity of this class of states. We also prove entanglement bounds and demonstrate that the low energy states follow an area law.