The presence of global conserved quantities in interacting systems generically leads to diffusive transport at late times. Here, we show that systems conserving the dipole moment of an associated global charge, or even higher moment generalizations thereof, escape this scenario, displaying subdiffusive decay instead. Modelling the time evolution as cellular automata for specific cases of dipole-and quadrupole-conservation, we numerically find distinct anomalous exponents of the late time relaxation. We explain these findings by analytically constructing a general hydrodynamic model that results in a series of exponents depending on the number of conserved moments, yielding an accurate description of the scaling form of charge correlation functions. We analyze the spatial profile of the correlations and discuss potential experimentally relevant signatures of higher moment conservation.

We consider the quench dynamics of a two-dimensional quantum dimer model and determine the role of its kinematic constraints. We interpret the non-equilibrium dynamics in terms of the underlying equilibrium phase transitions consisting of a BKT-transition between a columnar ordered valence bond solid (VBS) and a valence bond liquid (VBL), as well as a first order transition between a staggered VBS and the VBL. We find that quenches from a columnar VBS are ergodic and both order parameters and spatial correlations quickly relax to their thermal equilibrium. By contrast, the staggered side of the first order transition does not display thermalization on numerically accessible timescales. Based on the model's kinematic constraints, we uncover a mechanism of relaxation that rests on emergent, highly detuned multi-defect processes in a staggered background, which gives rise to slow, glassy dynamics at low temperatures even in the thermodynamic limit.