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arXiv:2401.11294 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Exponentially slow thermalization and the robustness of Hilbert space fragmentation

Yiqiu Han, Xiao Chen, Ethan Lake

Published Mar 9, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation, whereby dynamical constraints fragment Hilbert space into many disconnected sectors, provides a simple mechanism by which thermalization can be arrested. However, little is known about how thermalization occurs in situations where the constraints are not exact. To study this, we consider a situation in which a fragmented 1d chain with pair-flip constraints is coupled to an ergodicity-restoring thermal bath at its boundary. We numerically observe an exponentially long thermalization time in Hamiltonian dynamics, manifested in both entanglement dynamics and the relaxation of local observables. To understand this, we study an analogous model of random unitary circuit dynamics, whose thermalization time we prove scales exponentially with system size. Slow thermalization in this model is shown to be a consequence of strong bottlenecks in configuration space, which restrict how the system can explore Hilbert space, and demonstrate a new way of producing anomalously slow thermalization dynamics.

DOI
10.1103/zyfw-1rsd

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•Jan 1, 2020•362 citations
The phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation, whereby dynamical constraints fragment Hilbert space into many disconnected sectors, provides a simple mechanism by which thermalization can be arrested. However, little is known about how thermalization occurs in situations where the constraints are not exact. To study this, we consider a situation in which a fragmented 1d chain with pair-flip constraints is coupled to an ergodicity-restoring thermal bath at its boundary. We numerically observe an exponentially long thermalization time in Hamiltonian dynamics, manifested in both entanglement dynamics and the relaxation of local observables. To understand this, we study an analogous model of random unitary circuit dynamics, whose thermalization time we prove scales exponentially with system size. Slow thermalization in this model is shown to be a consequence of strong bottlenecks in configuration space, which restrict how the system can explore Hilbert space, and demonstrate a new way of producing anomalously slow thermalization dynamics.
We investigate the thermalization dynamics of 1D systems with local constraints coupled to an infinite temperature bath at one boundary. The coupling to the bath eventually erases the effects of the constraints, causing the system to tend towards a maximally mixed state at long times. We show that for a large class of local constraints, the time at which thermalization occurs can be extremely long. In particular, we present evidence for the following conjecture: when the constrained dynamics displays strong Hilbert space fragmentation, the thermalization time diverges exponentially with system size. We show that this conjecture holds for a wide range of dynamical constraints, including dipole-conserving dynamics, the tJztJ_ztJz​ model, and a large class of group-based dynamics, and relate a general proof of our conjecture to a different conjecture about the existence of certain expander graphs.
Hilbert space fragmentation refers to exponential growth in the number of dynamically disconnected Krylov sectors with system size. It is taken as evidence of ergodicity breaking, since conventional symmetries generate at most a polynomial number of sectors. However, we demonstrate that generalized symmetries can fragment the Hilbert space. Models with higher-form, subsystem, and gauge symmetries can have exponentially many symmetry sectors. We further prove that non-invertible symmetries can induce additional fragmentation within individual symmetry sectors. Fragmentation in several known models arises from generalized symmetries, and the presence of exponentially many Krylov sectors therefore does not by itself imply ergodicity breaking. Finally, we show that disorder free localization arises naturally from Krylov-restricted thermalization when sectors lack translation invariance, requiring neither ergodicity breaking nor gauge symmetry.
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.
Understanding the boundaries between quantum thermalization and localization in many-body systems remains a central frontier of condensed matter and quantum information science. In this work, we investigate the dynamics and spectral properties of a generic model with long-range three-body-interaction, namely, a system with non-local three-wave-mixing. This model has been realized recently with a microwave Fabry-Perot cavity terminated on one end by a superconducting qubit mirror. Utilizing exact diagonalization techniques, we uncover a striking paradox: the global energy level spacing statistics show integrability, even though all dynamic observables and inverse participation ratios of the eigenstates indicate ergodicity and delocalization. We show that this behavior is a hallmark of strong Hilbert space fragmentation driven by kinematic constraints rather than an explicit global symmetry. Inside these sectors, dynamics scramble rapidly, as evidenced by the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC), while global transport is heavily bottlenecked, resulting in a logarithmic relaxation to equilibrium. This picture is further confirmed by fluctuations in eigenstate entanglement entropy at the same energy. Finally, we demonstrate that the late time OTOC average scales with system size, providing a distinct experimentally accessible signature of the underlying three-body kinetic bottlenecks.
We study Hilbert-space fragmentation and thermalization in a one-dimensional dipole-conserving Bose-Hubbard chain. By analyzing the structure of the Hamiltonian matrix in the Fock basis, we show that the system exhibits weak Hilbert-space fragmentation. We further construct an exponentially large family of frozen product states and derive analytical upper and lower bounds on their number. Using exact diagonalization, we examine the consequences of weak fragmentation for eigenstate half-chain entanglement, density relaxation dynamics, and level statistics. All these quantities reveal a transition from a weak eigenstate thermalization regime to a nonergodic regime with increasing on-site interaction strength. These results show that weak Hilbert-space fragmentation \textit{does not} preclude quantum chaos or thermalization, and provides a minimal platform for studying the interplay of dipole conservation, weak fragmentation, and ergodicity breaking.
We show that the combination of charge and dipole conservation-characteristic of fracton systems-leads to an extensive fragmentation of the Hilbert space, which, in turn, can lead to a breakdown of thermalization. As a concrete example, we investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional spin-1 models that conserve charge (total S-z) and its associated dipole moment. First, we consider a minimal model including only three-site terms and find that the infinite temperature autocorrelation saturates to a finite value-showcasing nonthermal behavior. The absence of thermalization is identified as a consequence of the strong fragmentation of the Hilbert space into exponentially many invariant subspaces in the local S-z basis, arising from the interplay of dipole conservation and local interactions. Second, we extend the model by including four-site terms and find that this perturbation leads to a weak fragmentation: The system still has exponentially many invariant subspaces, but they are no longer sufficient to avoid thermalization for typical initial states. More generally, for any finite range of interactions, the system still exhibits nonthermal eigenstates appearing throughout the entire spectrum. We compare our results to charge and dipole moment-conserving random unitary circuit models for which we reach identical conclusions.