We investigate the phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in open quantum systems and find that it can stabilize highly entangled steady states. For concreteness, we consider the Temperley-Lieb model, which exhibits quantum HSF in an entangled basis, and investigate the Lindblad dynamics under two different couplings. First, we couple the system to a dephasing bath that reduces quantum fragmentation to a classical one with the resulting stationary state being separable. We observe that despite vanishing quantum correlations, classical correlations develop due to fluctuations of the remaining conserved quantities, which we show can be captured by a classical stochastic circuit evolution. Second, we use a coupling that preserves the quantum fragmentation structure. We derive a general expression for the steady state, which has a strong coherent memory of the initial state due to the extensive number of noncommuting conserved quantities. We then show that it is highly entangled as quantified by logarithmic negativity.
We investigate the phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in open quantum systems and find that it can stabilize highly entangled steady states. For concreteness, we consider the Temperley-Lieb model, which exhibits quantum HSF in an entangled basis, and investigate the Lindblad dynamics under two different couplings. First, we couple the system to a dephasing bath that reduces quantum fragmentation to a classical one with the resulting stationary state being separable. We observe that despite vanishing quantum correlations, classical correlations develop due to fluctuations of the remaining conserved quantities, which we show can be captured by a classical stochastic circuit evolution. Second, we use a coupling that preserves the quantum fragmentation structure. We derive a general expression for the steady state, which has a strong coherent memory of the initial state due to the extensive number of noncommuting conserved quantities. We then show that it is highly entangled as quantified by logarithmic negativity.
Strong symmetries enforce non-trivial quantum entanglement patterns on the stationary states of symmetric open quantum dynamics. Specifically, non-commuting conserved quantities lead to long-range quantum entanglement even for infinite temperature mixed states within fixed symmetry sectors. Leveraging the commutant algebra framework, we show that various bipartite entanglement measures for mixed states -- including exact and asymptotically-exact entanglement costs and squashed entanglement, which are generally intractable for a generic many-body mixed state -- can be computed for this class of states. In particular, we focus on strongly symmetric maximally mixed states arising from the Temperley-Lieb model, which features quantum Hilbert space fragmentation with exponentially large (in system size) non-Abelian commutants. We find that while both the logarithmic negativity and the `exact' entanglement cost for equal-size bipartitions scale with the volume of the system, the entanglement of formation, squashed entanglement, entanglement cost, and distillable entanglement exhibit subextensive scaling. We relate this separation in entanglement measures to a parametric difference between the entanglement cost of exact and asymptotically-exact state preparations, and infer this to be a consequence of a particular pattern of quantum Hilbert space fragmentation.
We investigate the onset and mechanism of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in a chain of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms subject to local dephasing. It is found that the emergence of multiple long-lived metastable states is fundamentally tied to HSF of the driven-dephasing Rydberg atom system. We demonstrate that the manifesting HSF is captured by a dephasing PXP model that supports multiple degenerate zero modes. These modes form disconnected, block-diagonal subspaces of maximally mixed states, which consist of many-body spin states sharing the same symmetry. A key result is the identification of the underlying symmetry in the HSF, where conserved quantities in each subspace are defined by the consecutive double excitation addressing operator. Moreover, we show explicitly that the number of the fragmented Hilbert space grows exponentially with the chain length, following a modified Fibonacci sequence. Our work provides insights into many-body dynamics under dynamical constraints and opens avenues for controlling and manipulating HSF in Rydberg atom systems.
The Lindblad equation for open quantum systems is central to our understanding of coherence and entanglement in the presence of Markovian dissipation. In closed quantum systems Hilbert-space fragmentation is an effective mechanism for slowing decoherence in the presence of constrained interactions. We develop a general mechanism for operator-space fragmentation of mixed states, undergoing Lindbladian evolution generated by frustration-free Hamiltonians and Pauli-string jump operators. The interplay of generator algebras of dissipative and unitary dynamics leads to a hierarchical partitioning of operator and real space into dynamically disconnected subspaces, which we elucidate using the bond and commutant algebras of superoperators. This fragmentation fundamentally constrains information spreading in open systems and provides new mechanisms to control highly entangled quantum states and dynamics. Our approach yields two key advances. Firstly, we introduce frustration graphs in operator space as a compact representation to construct effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in individual fragments and diagnose their free-fermion solvability. Secondly, using these methods we uncover a range of universal dynamical regimes in Pauli-Lindblad models, exhibiting symmetry enriched quantum chaos and integrability in operator-space fragments. Furthermore, we show dissipation-driven phase transitions corresponding to exceptional points in the Lindbladian spectrum whose signatures are captured by spectral statistics and operator dynamics. These results establish operator-space fragmentation as a fundamental principle for open quantum systems, with immediate implications for quantum error correction, where protected subspaces could emerge naturally from fragmentation. Our framework provides a systematic approach to discover and characterize novel non-equilibrium phases in open quantum many-body systems.
We find that rank deficiency of the local Hamiltonian in a classically fragmented model is the key mechanism leading to quantum Hilbert space fragmentation. The rank deficiency produces local null directions that can generate entangled frozen states (EFS): entangled states embedded in mobile classical Krylov sectors that do not evolve under Hamiltonian dynamics. When the entangled frozen subspace is non-empty, the mobile classical sector splits into a mobile quantum Krylov subspace and an entangled frozen subspace, and the model exhibits quantum fragmentation. We establish this mechanism in four models of increasing symmetry structure: an asymmetric qubit projector with no symmetry, the Z2-symmetric GHZ projector, a Z3-symmetric cyclic qutrit projector, and the Temperley-Lieb model. For the asymmetric and GHZ projector models, we obtain closed-form expressions for irreducible Krylov dimensions, degeneracies, and sector multiplicities. The all-mobile-sector EFS in these two models exhibits a sub-volume-law bipartite entanglement entropy scaling as S∼L. Further, we introduce the notion of weak and strong quantum fragmentation, the quantum counterpart of the weak-strong distinction in classical fragmentation. After removing the EFS, the mobile quantum Krylov subspace decomposes into irreducible blocks. In the weak case, the number of irreducible blocks remains O(1), each is individually ergodic with Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) level statistics, and the unresolved spectrum follows an mGOE distribution. In the strong case, the number of irreducible blocks grows with system size, and the gap-ratio distribution approaches Poisson as L→∞.
Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) is a phenomenon wherein the Hilbert space of an isolated quantum system splits into exponentially many disconnected subsectors. The fragmented systems do not thermalize after long-time evolution because the dynamics are restricted to a small subsector. Inspired by recent developments of the HSF, we construct the Hamiltonian that exhibits the HSF in momentum space. We show that persistent-current (PC) states emerge due to the HSF in the momentum space. We also investigate the stability of the PC states against the random potential, which breaks the structure of the HSF, and find that the decay rate of the PC is almost independent of the current velocity.
Quantum kinetically constrained models have recently attracted significant attention due to their anomalous dynamics and thermalization. In this work, we introduce a hitherto unexplored family of kinetically constrained models featuring conserved particle number and strong inversion-symmetry breaking due to facilitated hopping. We demonstrate that these models provide a generic example of so-called quantum Hilbert space fragmentation, that is manifested in disconnected sectors in the Hilbert space that are not apparent in the computational basis. Quantum Hilbert space fragmentation leads to an exponential in system size number of eigenstates with exactly zero entanglement entropy across several bipartite cuts. These eigenstates can be probed dynamically using quenches from simple initial product states. In addition, we study the particle spreading under unitary dynamics launched from the domain wall state, and find faster than diffusive dynamics at high particle densities, that crosses over into logarithmically slow relaxation at smaller densities. Using a classically simulable cellular automaton, we reproduce the logarithmic dynamics observed in the quantum case. Our work suggests that particle conserving constrained models with inversion symmetry breaking realize so far unexplored dynamical behavior and invite their further theoretical and experimental studies.