# Many-body localization dynamics from gauge invariance

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that lattice gauge theories can exhibit many-body localization without disorder, driven by gauge invariance and Gauss law constraints, with implications for quantum simulations.

## Contribution

It introduces a disorder-free mechanism for many-body localization in gauge theories, supported by extensive real-time simulations of the lattice Schwinger model.

## Key findings

- Memory effects and slow entanglement growth observed
- Localization persists in a broad parameter regime
- Relevance to cold atom and ion experiments

## Abstract

We show how lattice gauge theories can display many-body localization dynamics in the absence of disorder. Our starting point is the observation that, for some generic translationally invariant states, Gauss law effectively induces a dynamics which can be described as a disorder average over gauge super-selection sectors. We carry out extensive exact simulations on the real-time dynamics of a lattice Schwinger model, describing the coupling between U(1) gauge fields and staggered fermions. Our results show how memory effects and slow entanglement growth are present in a broad regime of parameters - in particular, for sufficiently large interactions. These findings are immediately relevant to cold atoms and trapped ions experiments realizing dynamical gauge fields, and suggest a new and universal link between confinement and entanglement dynamics in the many-body localized phase of lattice models.