Probing the onset of quantum avalanches in a many-body localized system

Strongly correlated systems can exhibit unexpected phenomena when brought in a state far from equilibrium. An example is many-body localization, which prevents generic interacting systems from reaching thermal equilibrium even at long times1,2. The stability of the many-body localized phase has been predicted to be hindered by the presence of small thermal inclusions that act as a bath, leading to the delocalization of the entire system through an avalanche propagation mechanism3–8. Here we study the dynamics of a thermal inclusion of variable size when it is coupled to a many-body localized system. We find evidence for accelerated transport of thermal inclusion into the localized region. We monitor how the avalanche spreads through the localized system and thermalizes it site by site by measuring the site-resolved entropy over time. Furthermore, we isolate the strongly correlated bath-induced dynamics with multipoint correlations between the bath and the system. Our results have implications on the robustness of many-body localized systems and their critical behaviour.