We study measurement-induced phases of free fermion systems with U ( 1 ) symmetry. Following a recent approach developed for Majorana chains, we derive a field theory description for the purity and bipartite entanglement at large space and timescales. We focus on a multiflavor one-dimensional chain with random complex hoppings and continuous monitoring of the local fermion density. By means of the replica trick, and using the number of flavors as a large parameter controlling our approximations, we derive an effective field theory made up of a SU(N) nonlinear sigma model ( NL σ M ) coupled to fluctuating hydrodynamics. Contrary to the case of noninteracting Majorana fermions, displaying no U ( 1 ) symmetry, we find that the bipartite entanglement entropy satisfies an area law for all monitoring rates but with a nontrivial scaling of entanglement when the correlation length is large. We provide numerical evidence supporting our claims. We briefly show how imposing a reality condition on the hoppings can change the NL σ M and also discuss higher-dimensional generalizations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We study measurement-induced phases of free fermion systems with U ( 1 ) symmetry. Following a recent approach developed for Majorana chains, we derive a field theory description for the purity and bipartite entanglement at large space and timescales. We focus on a multiflavor one-dimensional chain with random complex hoppings and continuous monitoring of the local fermion density. By means of the replica trick, and using the number of flavors as a large parameter controlling our approximations, we derive an effective field theory made up of a SU(N) nonlinear sigma model ( NL σ M ) coupled to fluctuating hydrodynamics. Contrary to the case of noninteracting Majorana fermions, displaying no U ( 1 ) symmetry, we find that the bipartite entanglement entropy satisfies an area law for all monitoring rates but with a nontrivial scaling of entanglement when the correlation length is large. We provide numerical evidence supporting our claims. We briefly show how imposing a reality condition on the hoppings can change the NL σ M and also discuss higher-dimensional generalizations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We derive field theory descriptions for measurement-induced phase transitions in free fermion systems.We focus on a multiflavor Majorana chain, undergoing Hamiltonian evolution with continuous monitoring of local fermion parity operators.Using the replica trick, we map the dynamics to the imaginary time evolution of an effective spin chain and use the number of flavors as a large parameter for a controlled derivation of the effective field theory.This is a nonlinear sigma model for an orthogonal N × N matrix, in the replica limit N → 1. (On a boundary of the phase diagram, another sigma model with higher symmetry applies.)Together with known results for the renormalization-group beta function, this derivation establishes the existence of stable phases-nontrivially entangled and disentangled, respectively-in the physically relevant replica limit N → 1.In the nontrivial phase, an asymptotically exact calculation shows that the bipartite entanglement entropy for a system of size L scales as ðln LÞ 2 , in contrast to findings in previously studied models.Varying the relative strength of Hamiltonian evolution and monitoring, as well as a dimerization parameter, the model's phase diagram contains transitions out of the nontrivial phase, which we map to vortex-unbinding transitions in the sigma model, and also contains separate critical points on the measurement-only axis.We highlight the close analogies as well as the differences with the replica approach to Anderson transitions in disordered systems.
Measurement-induced phase transitions (MIPTs) in monitored quantum dynamics are nonequilibrium phase transitions between quantum-chaotic (volume-law entangled) and entanglement-suppressed, area-law phases. Here we reveal how monitored dynamics are situated within the framework of general far-from-equilibrium, quantum condensed-matter physics. Measurement-induced heating effects scramble the distribution function in generic (interacting) monitored fermion systems, and this enables a simplified symmetry-based description of the dynamics. We demonstrate the equivalence of the Keldysh technique with the conventional Statistical-Mechanics Model for circuits, resulting from a doubled Hilbert-space (Choi-Jamio\l{}kowski) mapping. We illustrate this using the monitored dynamics of interacting fermions with a conserved charge, deriving a unified effective-field theory that captures all phases and phase transitions. The noninteracting counterpart in one-dimensional space only has an area-law phase, with no MIPT. This was explained via an effective nonlinear sigma model replica field theory possessing a very large symmetry. We show that other phases and phase transitions emerge when the replica symmetry is reduced by interactions. The reduced symmetry combines a replica permutation symmetry and charge-conservation within each replica. The former and its spontaneous breaking govern the MIPT, which can be recognized via a separatrix in the renormalization-group flow. The replica-resolved charge conservation dictates the ``charge-sharpening'' transition between two kinds of dynamics, where the global charge information is either hidden or reconstructible from the measurements. The field theory explains why the charge-sharpening transition should occur only in the volume-law phase. Our framework provides a template for other classes of MIPTs and situates these within the arena of nonequilibrium condensed-matter physics.
Continuous monitoring of one-dimensional free fermionic systems can generate phenomena reminiscent of quantum criticality, such as logarithmic entanglement growth, algebraic correlations, and emergent conformal invariance, but in a nonequilibrium setting. However, whether these signatures reflect a genuine phase of nonequilibrium quantum matter or persist only over finite length scales is an active area of research. We address this question in a free fermionic chain subject to continuous monitoring of lattice-site occupations. An unraveling phase φ interpolates between measurement schemes, corresponding to different stochastic unravelings of the same Lindblad master equation; for φ = 0 , measurements disentangle lattice sites, while for φ = π / 2 they act as unitary random noise, yielding volume-law steady-state entanglement. Using replica Keldysh field theory, we obtain a nonlinear sigma model describing the long-wavelength physics. This analysis shows that for 0 ≤ φ < π / 2 , entanglement ultimately obeys an area law, but only beyond the exponentially large scale ln ( l φ , * ) ∼ J / [ γ cos ( φ ) ] , where J is the hopping amplitude and γ the measurement rate. Resolving l φ , * in numerical simulations is difficult for γ / J → 0 or φ → π / 2 . However, the theory also predicts that critical-like behavior appears below a crossover scale that grows only algebraically in J / γ , making it numerically accessible. Our simulations confirm these predictions, establishing the absence of measurement- or unraveling-induced entanglement transitions in this model.
We study a one-dimensional lattice system of free fermions subjected to a generalized measurement process: the system exchanges particles with its environment, but each fermion leaving or entering the system is counted. In contrast to the freezing of dynamics due to frequent measurements of lattice site occupation numbers, a high rate of fermion counts induces fast fluctuations in the state of the system. Still, through numerical simulations of quantum trajectories and an analytical approach based on replica Keldysh field theory, we find that instantaneous correlations and entanglement properties of free fermions subjected to fermion counting and local occupation measurements are strikingly similar. We explain this similarity through a generalized Zeno effect induced by fermion counting and a universal long-wavelength description in terms of a nonlinear sigma model. The physical requirements underlying this universal emergent behavior are conservation of the total number of particles in the system and its environment, and conservation of the purity of the state of the system by keeping a full record of all measurement outcomes. For both types of measurement processes, we present strong evidence against the existence of a critical phase with logarithmic entanglement and conformal invariance. Instead, we identify a finite critical range of length scales on which signatures of conformal invariance are observable. While area-law entanglement is established beyond a scale that is exponentially large in the measurement rate, the upper boundary of the critical range is only algebraically large and thus numerically accessible. Our finding that these properties do not rely on particle-number conservation has far-reaching implications for measurement-induced phenomena beyond noninteracting fermions, such as charge sharpening in random quantum circuits or generic interacting systems.
On finite system sizes, monitored one-dimensional free-fermion chains display a broad crossover in entanglement scaling as the measurement rate increases, from sub-extensive behavior at weak monitoring toward an area law at strong monitoring. Analytical field theory and recent large-scale simulations indicate that this apparent change is not a finite-rate transition in the thermodynamic limit. I test, using trajectory-resolved correlation-matrix simulations (chains up to L=96 and up to 128 Born-rule trajectories per parameter point), whether two quantities built from the single-particle entanglement spectrum are useful finite-size diagnostics: the bipartite particle-number fluctuation FA=∑kνk(1−νk) and a participation-style effective number of entangling modes, MA=exp[−∑kwklnwk], with wk∝νk(1−νk). Both quantities track the crossover. However, for trajectory- and time-averaged steady-state values, M is nearly a deterministic function of F: a pooled curve explains 99.7\% of its variance across all rates, so M carries little independent information. Its main advantage is statistical: its trajectory-to-trajectory coefficient of variation is up to a factor of ∼2 smaller than that of the entropy or F under strong monitoring. Subsystem-scaling comparisons at L=48--96 also show that a pure logarithmic law is not statistically preferred under weak monitoring; a small residual quasi-extensive component and a drifting logarithmic coefficient are instead consistent with a crossover rather than a critical phase. Thus, F remains the natural experimentally motivated companion to the entropy, whereas M is best viewed as a variance-reduced numerical summary of essentially the same information.
We investigate the entanglement structure and wave function characteristics of continuously monitored free fermions with U(1) symmetry in two spatial dimensions. By deriving the exact fermion replica-quantum master equation, we line out two approaches: (i) a nonlinear sigma model analogous to disordered free fermions, resulting in an SU(R)-symmetric field theory of symmetry class AIII in (2+1) space-time dimensions, or (ii) for bipartite lattices, third quantization leading to a non-Hermitian SU(2R)-symmetric Hubbard model. Using exact numerical simulations, we explore the phenomenology of the entanglement transition in two-dimensional (2D) monitored fermions, examining entanglement entropy and wave function inverse participation ratio. At weak monitoring, we observe characteristic LlogL entanglement growth and multifractal dimension Dq=2, resembling a metallic Fermi liquid. Under strong monitoring, wave functions localize and the entanglement saturates towards an area law. Between these regimes, we identify a high-symmetry point exhibiting both entanglement growth indicative of emergent conformal invariance and maximal multifractal behavior. While this multifractal behavior aligns with the nonlinear sigma model of the Anderson transition, the emergent conformal invariance is an unexpected feature not typically associated with Anderson localization. These discoveries add a new dimension to the study of 2D monitored fermions and underscore the need to further explore the connection between nonunitary quantum dynamics in D dimensions and quantum statistical mechanics in D+1 dimensions.