Disorder-free localization in a simple <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>U</mml:mi><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math> lattice gauge theory
Irene Papaefstathiou, Adam Smith, Johannes Knolle
Abstract
Localization due to the presence of disorder has proven crucial for our current understanding of relaxation in isolated quantum systems. The many-body localized phase constitutes a robust alternative to the thermalization of complex interacting systems, but recently the importance of disorder has been brought into question. A number of disorder-free localization mechanisms have been put forward connected to local symmetries of lattice gauge theories. Here, starting from translationally invariant $(1+1)$-dimensional quantum electrodynamics, we modify the dynamics of the gauge field which allows us to construct a lattice model with a $U$(1) local gauge symmetry revealing a mechanism of disorder-free localization. We consider two different discretizations of the continuum model resulting in a free-fermion soluble model in one case and an interacting model in the other. We diagnose the localization of our translationally invariant model in the far-from-equilibrium dynamics following a global quantum quench.