Disorder-free localization in quantum walks

Abstract

The phenomenon of localization usually happens due to the existence of disorder in a medium. Nevertheless, certain quantum systems allow dynamical localization solely due to the nature of internal interactions. We study a discrete time quantum walker which exhibits disorder-free localization. The quantum walker moves on a one-dimensional lattice and interacts with on-site spins by coherently rotating them around a given axis at each step. Since the spins do not have dynamics of their own, the system poses the local spin components along the rotation axis as an extensive number of conserved moments. When the interaction is weak, the spread of the walker shows subdiffusive behavior having downscaled ballistic tails in the evolving probability distribution at intermediate timescales. However, as the interaction gets stronger the walker gets completely localized in total absence of disorder in both lattice and initial state. Using a matrix-product-state ansatz, we investigate the relaxation and entanglement dynamics of the on-site spins due to their coupling with the quantum walker. Surprisingly, we find that, even in the delocalized regime, entanglement growth and relaxation occur slowly, unlike majority of the other models displaying a localization transition.