  Recent work has shown that two seemingly different physical mechanisms,
namely fracton behavior and confinement, can give rise to non-ergodicity in
one-dimensional quantum many-body systems. In this work, we demonstrate an
intrinsic link between these two mechanisms by studying the dynamics of
one-dimensional confining theories, such as a U(1) gauge theory and a quantum
Ising model. We show that, within certain parameter regimes, these models
exhibit effective fracton dynamics, characterized by immobility of stable
single-particle excitations and free motion of dipolar bound states. By
perturbatively integrating out the linearly confining field, we obtain an
effective fracton Hamiltonian for the confined charges which exhibits
conservation of dipole moment. We discuss an intuitive understanding of these
results in terms of the motion of the confining strings, leading to potential
extensions to higher dimensions. We thereby interpret recent observations of
nonthermal eigenstates and glassy dynamics in confining theories in terms of
corresponding results in the fracton literature.
