Emergent tracer dynamics in constrained quantum systems

Abstract

We show how the tracer motion of tagged, distinguishable particles can effectively describe transport in various homogeneous quantum many-body systems with constraints. We consider systems of spinful particles on a one-dimensional lattice subjected to constrained spin interactions, such that some or even all multipole moments of the effective spin pattern formed by the particles are conserved. On the one hand, when all moments - and thus the entire spin pattern - are conserved, dynamical spin correlations reduce to tracer motion identically, generically yielding a subdiffusive dynamical exponent $z=4$. This provides a common framework to understand the dynamics of several constrained lattice models, including models with XNOR or $tJ_z$ - constraints. We consider random unitary circuit dynamics with such a conserved spin pattern and use the tracer picture to obtain exact expressions for their late-time dynamical correlations. Our results can also be extended to integrable quantum many-body systems that feature a conserved spin pattern but whose dynamics is insensitive to the pattern, which includes for example the folded XXZ spin chain. On the other hand, when only a finite number of moments of the pattern are conserved, the dynamics is described by a convolution of the internal hydrodynamics of the spin pattern with a tracer distribution function. As a consequence, we find that the tracer universality is robust in generic systems if at least the quadrupole moment of the pattern remains conserved. In cases where only total magnetization and dipole moment of the pattern are constant, we uncover an intriguing coexistence of two processes with equal dynamical exponent but different scaling functions, which we relate to phase coexistence at a first order transition.