Magnetic domains stabilized by symmetry-protected zero modes
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.15510 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 16 Apr 2026] Title:Magnetic domains stabilized by symmetry-protected zero modes Authors:Pavel Kos, Dominik S. Wild, Kristian Knakkergaard Nielsen View a PDF of the paper titled Magnetic domains stabilized by symmetry-protected zero modes, by Pavel Kos and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Understanding mechanisms for the breakdown of thermalization in closed quantum systems is a central problem in quantum many-body physics. We demonstrate strong non-ergodic behavior in the XX model on coupled chains, where domain-wall initial states retain an inhomogeneous magnetization profile for arbitrarily long times. We find that this effect arises due to exponentially many zero modes protected by chiral symmetry. Using an analysis based on the Lanczos algorithm, we identify a localization transition in the thermodynamic limit at a critical coupling between the chains. We further show that antiferromagnetic defects in the initial state and symmetry-breaking perturbations restore slow thermalization, whereas it remains robust for symmetry-conserving perturbations. These results establish that degenerate, symmetry-protected subspaces can give rise to thermodynamically stable non-ergodic dynamics in experimentally accessible quantum systems. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) Cite as: arXiv:2604.15510 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2604.15510v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.15510 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Kristian Knakkergaard Nielsen [view email] [v1] Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:36:42 UTC (6,213 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Magnetic domains stabilized by symmetry-protected zero modes, by Pavel Kos and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.quant-gas cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.str-el References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)