Information-theoretic memory scaling in the many-body localization transition

A key feature of many-body localization (MBL) is the breaking of ergodicity and consequently the emergence of local memory, revealed as the local preservation of information over time. As memory is necessarily a time-dependent concept, it has been partially captured by a few extant studies of dynamical quantities. However, these quantities suffer from a variety of issues which limit their value as true quantifiers of memory; thus, a fundamental and complete information-theoretic understanding of local memory in the context of MBL remains elusive. We outline these issues in detail and introduce the dynamical Holevo quantity to address them. We find that it shows clear scaling behavior across the MBL transition, and we determine a family of two-parameter scaling Ans\"atze which capture this behavior. We perform a comprehensive finite-sized scaling analysis to extract the transition point and scaling exponents.