Stabilizing Disorder-Free Localization

Abstract

Disorder-free localization is a paradigm of nonergodicity in translation-invariant quantum many-body systems hosting gauge symmetries. The quench dynamics starting from simple initial states, which correspond to extensive superpositions of gauge superselection sectors, exhibits many-body localization with the system dynamically inducing its own disorder. An open question concerns the stability of disorder-free localization in the presence of gauge-breaking errors, and whether processes due to the latter can be controllably suppressed. Here, we show that translation-invariant single-body gauge terms induce a quantum Zeno effect that reliably protects disorder-free localization against errors up to times at least polynomial in the protection strength. Our experimentally feasible scheme not only shows that disorder-free localization can be reliably stabilized, but also opens promising prospects for its observation in quantum simulators.