Emergence of Hilbert Space Fragmentation in Ising Models with a Weak Transverse Field

Abstract

The transverse-field Ising model is one of the fundamental models in quantum many-body systems, yet a full understanding of its dynamics remains elusive in higher than one dimension. Here, we show for the first time the breakdown of ergodicity in $d$-dimensional Ising models with a weak transverse field in a prethermal regime. We demonstrate that novel Hilbert-space fragmentation occurs in the effective non-integrable model with $d\geq2$ as a consequence of only one emergent global conservation law of the domain wall number. Our results indicate nontrivial initial-state dependence for non-equilibrium dynamics of the Ising models in a weak transverse field.