We numerically study the effect of disorder on the stability of the many-body zero mode in a Kitaev chain with local interactions. Our numerical procedure allows us to resolve the position space and multiparticle structure of the zero modes, as well as providing estimates for the mean energy splitting between pairs of states of opposite fermion parity, over the full many-body spectrum. We find that the parameter space of a clean system can be divided into regions where interaction induced decay transitions are suppressed (region I) and where they are not (region II). In region I we observe that disorder has an adverse effect on the zero mode, which extends further into the bulk and is accompanied by an increased energy splitting between pairs of states of opposite parity. Conversely region II sees a more intricate effect of disorder, showing an enhancement of localization at the system's end accompanied by a reduction in the mean pairwise energy splitting. We discuss our results in the context of the many-body localization (MBL). We show that while the mechanism that drives the MBL transition also contributes to the fock-space localization of the many-body zero modes, measures that characterize the degree of MBL do not necessarily correlate with an enhancement of the zero mode or an improved stability of the topological region.

• Received 17 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.085425