Fracton hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This work establishes fracton hydrodynamics as an effective theory for systems with mobility constraints arising from dipole and higher-multipole conservation laws. By coupling to higher-rank background gauge fields and invoking higher-rank currents, it derives universal subdiffusive hydrodynamics across dipole, multipole, and subsystem-symmetry cases, with explicit predictions for relaxation rates scaling as $\tau\sim \lambda^{2+2n}$ and $\Gamma(k)\sim k^{2+2n}$. It further connects these predictions to constrained quantum circuits, tilted optical lattices, magnetic fields, and long-range interactions, offering experimentally testable signatures such as $\tau\propto\lambda^4$ in cold-atom systems and lattice-dependent higher-derivative transport laws. The results significantly advance the understanding of how symmetry, rather than microscopic detail, dictates slow thermalization and transport in fracton-like quantum matter, providing a versatile framework for future exploration in both theory and experiment.

Abstract

We introduce new classes of hydrodynamic theories inspired by the recently discovered fracton phases of quantum matter. Fracton phases are characterized by elementary excitations (fractons) with restricted mobility. The hydrodynamic theories we introduce describe thermalization in systems with fracton-like mobility constraints, including fluids where charge and dipole moment are both locally conserved, and fluids where charge is conserved along every line or plane of a lattice. Each of these fluids is subdiffusive, and constitutes a new universality class of hydrodynamic behavior. There are infinitely many such classes, each with distinct subdiffusive exponents, all of which are captured by our formalism. Our framework naturally explains recent results on dynamics with constrained quantum circuits, as well as recent experiments with ultracold atoms in tilted optical lattices. We identify crisp experimental signatures of these novel hydrodynamics, and explain how they may be realized in near term ultracold atom experiments.