Dynamical localization and slow thermalization in a class of disorder-free periodically driven one-dimensional interacting systems

Abstract: We study if the interplay between dynamical localization and interactions in periodically driven quantum systems can give rise to anomalous thermalization behavior. Specifically, we consider one-dimensional models with interacting spinless fermions with nearest-neighbor hopping and density-density interactions, and a periodically driven on-site potential with spatial periodicity $m=2$ and $m=4$. At a dynamical localization point, these models evade thermalization either due to the presence of an extensive number of conserved quantities (for weak interactions) or due to the kinetic constraints caused by drive-induced resonances (for strong interactions). Our models therefore illustrate interesting mechanisms for generating constrained dynamics in Floquet systems which are difficult to realize in an undriven system.