Long-lived local quantum coherences from hydrodynamic large deviations

Abstract

We develop a framework to describe how quantum coherences between distinct charge sectors evolve under generic charge-conserving dynamics. Our framework captures the nonperturbative interactions between quantum coherences and hydrodynamic large deviations---i.e., rare ``voids'' of low charge entropy. Conditional on surviving, the quantum coherence and its surrounding void form a collective polaron-like object. In one dimension, even at infinite temperature, we show that the lifetime of coherences is parametrically enhanced because they bind to voids. We use our framework to address two fundamental questions about generic quantum dynamics with a conserved charge. First, we argue that gapped Ruelle-Pollicott resonances are absent in the weak-noise limit, even in sectors of operator space that contain no hydrodynamic slow modes: instead, the spectral gap in all sectors vanishes nonperturbatively in the noise strength. Second, we compute the spacetime asymptotics of the dynamical single-particle Green's function, both in the weak-noise regime and in the absence of noise. In the noiseless case, we find that the void--coherence polaron undergoes subdiffusion, with an exponent we calculate. We support our general arguments with a microscopic derivation for random charge-conserving circuits, as well as numerical evidence from tensor-network simulations.