Dynamics of defects and interfaces for interacting quantum hard disks

Abstract: Defects and interfaces are essential to understand the properties of matter. However, studying their dynamics in the quantum regime remains a challenge in particular concerning the regime of two spatial dimensions. Recently, it has been shown that a quantum counterpart of the hard-disk problem on a lattice yields defects and interfaces, which are stable just due to quantum effects while they delocalize and dissolve classically. Here, we study in more detail the properties of defects and interfaces in this quantum hard-disk problem with a particular emphasis on the stability of these quantum effects upon including perturbations. Specifically, we introduce short-range soft-core interactions between the hard disks. From both analytical arguments and numerical simulations we find that large classes of defects and interfaces remain stable even under such perturbations suggesting that the quantum nature of the dynamics exhibits a large range of robustness. Our findings demonstrate the stability and non-classical behavior of quantum interface dynamics, offering insights into the dynamics of two-dimensional quantum matter and establishing the quantum hard-disk model as a platform for studying unconventional constrained quantum dynamics.