Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution

The interplay of unitary evolution and local measurements in many-body systems gives rise to a stochastic state evolution and to measurement-induced phase transitions in the pure state entanglement. In realistic settings, however, this dynamics may be spoiled by decoherence, e.g., dephasing, due to...

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Main Authors: B. Ladewig, S. Diehl, M. Buchhold
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2022-07-01
Series:Physical Review Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033001
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author B. Ladewig
S. Diehl
M. Buchhold
author_facet B. Ladewig
S. Diehl
M. Buchhold
author_sort B. Ladewig
collection DOAJ
description The interplay of unitary evolution and local measurements in many-body systems gives rise to a stochastic state evolution and to measurement-induced phase transitions in the pure state entanglement. In realistic settings, however, this dynamics may be spoiled by decoherence, e.g., dephasing, due to coupling to an environment or measurement imperfections. We investigate the impact of dephasing and the inevitable evolution into a non-Gaussian, mixed state, on the dynamics of monitored fermions. We approach it from three complementary perspectives: (i) the exact solution of the conditional master equation for small systems, (ii) quantum trajectory simulations of Gaussian states for large systems, and (iii) a renormalization group analysis of a bosonic replica field theory. For weak dephasing, constant monitoring preserves a weakly mixed state, which displays a robust measurement-induced phase transition between a critical and a pinned phase, as in the decoherence-free case. At strong dephasing, we observe the emergence of a new scale describing an effective temperature, which is accompanied with an increased mixedness of the fermion density matrix. Remarkably, observables such as density-density correlation functions or the subsystem parity still display scale invariant behavior even in this strongly mixed phase. We interpret this as a signature of gapless, classical diffusion, which is stabilized by the balanced interplay of Hamiltonian dynamics, measurements, and decoherence.
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spelling doaj.art-3e3c1d02816145be914fdf34eaaed8282024-04-12T17:22:23ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642022-07-014303300110.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033001Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolutionB. LadewigS. DiehlM. BuchholdThe interplay of unitary evolution and local measurements in many-body systems gives rise to a stochastic state evolution and to measurement-induced phase transitions in the pure state entanglement. In realistic settings, however, this dynamics may be spoiled by decoherence, e.g., dephasing, due to coupling to an environment or measurement imperfections. We investigate the impact of dephasing and the inevitable evolution into a non-Gaussian, mixed state, on the dynamics of monitored fermions. We approach it from three complementary perspectives: (i) the exact solution of the conditional master equation for small systems, (ii) quantum trajectory simulations of Gaussian states for large systems, and (iii) a renormalization group analysis of a bosonic replica field theory. For weak dephasing, constant monitoring preserves a weakly mixed state, which displays a robust measurement-induced phase transition between a critical and a pinned phase, as in the decoherence-free case. At strong dephasing, we observe the emergence of a new scale describing an effective temperature, which is accompanied with an increased mixedness of the fermion density matrix. Remarkably, observables such as density-density correlation functions or the subsystem parity still display scale invariant behavior even in this strongly mixed phase. We interpret this as a signature of gapless, classical diffusion, which is stabilized by the balanced interplay of Hamiltonian dynamics, measurements, and decoherence.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033001
spellingShingle B. Ladewig
S. Diehl
M. Buchhold
Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
Physical Review Research
title Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
title_full Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
title_fullStr Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
title_full_unstemmed Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
title_short Monitored open fermion dynamics: Exploring the interplay of measurement, decoherence, and free Hamiltonian evolution
title_sort monitored open fermion dynamics exploring the interplay of measurement decoherence and free hamiltonian evolution
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033001
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AT mbuchhold monitoredopenfermiondynamicsexploringtheinterplayofmeasurementdecoherenceandfreehamiltonianevolution