Full distribution of the ground-state energy of potentials with weak disorder

Abstract

We study the full distribution $P(E)$ of the ground-state energy of a single quantum particle in a potential $V(\bf x) = V_0(\bf x) + \sqrt{\epsilon} \, V_1(\bf x)$, where $V_0(\bf x)$ is a deterministic "background" trapping potential and $V_1(\bf x)$ is the disorder. In the weak-disorder limit $\epsilon \to 0$, we find that $P(E)$ scales as $P(E) \sim e^{-s(E)/\epsilon}$. The large-deviation function $s(E)$ is obtained by calculating the most likely configuration of $V(\bf x)$ conditioned on a given ground-state energy $E$. We consider arbitrary trapping potentials $V_0(\bf x)$ and white-noise disorder $V_1(\bf x)$. For infinite systems, we obtain $s(E)$ analytically in the limits $E \to \pm \infty$ and $E \simeq E_0$ where $E_0$ is the ground-state energy in the absence of disorder. We perform explicit calculations for the case of a harmonic trap $V_0(\bf x) \propto x^2$. Next, we calculate $s(E)$ exactly for a finite, periodic one-dimensional system with a homogeneous background $V_0(x)=0$. We find that, remarkably, the system exhibits a sudden change of behavior as $E$ crosses a critical value $E_c < 0$: At $E>E_c$, the most likely configuration of $V(x)$ is homogeneous, whereas at $E < E_c$ it is inhomogeneous, thus spontaneously breaking the translational symmetry of the problem. As a result, $s(E)$ is nonanalytic: Its second derivative jumps at $E=E_c$. We interpret this singularity as a second-order dynamical phase transition.