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arXiv:2509.08584

Spectral Transitions of the Entanglement Hamiltonian in Monitored Free Fermions

K. Chahine, Michael Buchhold

Published Sep 10, 2025• 1 citation
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Abstract

We numerically investigate measurement-induced phase transitions in monitored free fermions through the spectral and eigenstate properties of the entanglement Hamiltonian. By analyzing entanglement scaling, we identify three non-trivial fixed points, for which the entanglement follows exact analytical scaling forms: chaotic unitary dynamics at infinitesimal monitoring, characterized by a Gaussian Page law; a Fermi-liquid fixed point at moderate monitoring, defining a metallic phase with logarithmic entanglement growth and emergent space-time invariance; and a quantum Lifshitz fixed point marking the measurement-induced phase transition into a localized area-law phase. Adopting a random-matrix perspective on the entanglement Hamiltonian, we show that short-range spectral correlations, such as the adjacent gap ratio $\langle \tilde r\rangle$ and the Kullback-Leibler divergence $KL_1$, sharply detect an ergodic to non-ergodic phase transition at the quantum Lifshitz fixed point, and yield precise estimates of the critical point and correlation length exponent. Long-range probes, including the spectral form factor and the associated Thouless time, corroborate this picture, while the variant $KL_2$ uncovers signatures of a possible non-ergodic extended (multifractal) regime at intermediate monitoring strengths. Together, these results establish the entanglement Hamiltonian as a powerful framework for diagnosing metallic, localized, and multifractal regimes in monitored quantum dynamics, and highlight unexpected scaling structures, Fermi-liquid and Lifshitz criticality, that lie beyond current field-theoretic approaches.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2509.08584

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We numerically investigate measurement-induced phase transitions in monitored free fermions through the spectral and eigenstate properties of the entanglement Hamiltonian. By analyzing entanglement scaling, we identify three non-trivial fixed points, for which the entanglement follows exact analytical scaling forms: chaotic unitary dynamics at infinitesimal monitoring, characterized by a Gaussian Page law; a Fermi-liquid fixed point at moderate monitoring, defining a metallic phase with logarithmic entanglement growth and emergent space-time invariance; and a quantum Lifshitz fixed point marking the measurement-induced phase transition into a localized area-law phase. Adopting a random-matrix perspective on the entanglement Hamiltonian, we show that short-range spectral correlations, such as the adjacent gap ratio ⟨r~⟩\langle \tilde r\rangle⟨r~⟩ and the Kullback-Leibler divergence KL1KL_1KL1​, sharply detect an ergodic to non-ergodic phase transition at the quantum Lifshitz fixed point, and yield precise estimates of the critical point and correlation length exponent. Long-range probes, including the spectral form factor and the associated Thouless time, corroborate this picture, while the variant KL2KL_2KL2​ uncovers signatures of a possible non-ergodic extended (multifractal) regime at intermediate monitoring strengths. Together, these results establish the entanglement Hamiltonian as a powerful framework for diagnosing metallic, localized, and multifractal regimes in monitored quantum dynamics, and highlight unexpected scaling structures, Fermi-liquid and Lifshitz criticality, that lie beyond current field-theoretic approaches.
We numerically investigate measurement-induced phase transitions in monitored free fermions through the spectral and eigenstate properties of the entanglement Hamiltonian. By analyzing entanglement scaling, we identify three nontrivial fixed points, for which the entanglement follows exact analytical scaling forms: chaotic unitary dynamics at infinitesimal monitoring, characterized by a Gaussian Page law; a Fermi-liquid fixed point at moderate monitoring, defining a metallic phase with logarithmic entanglement growth and emergent space-time invariance; and a quantum Lifshitz fixed point marking the measurement-induced phase transition into a localized area-law phase. Adopting a random-matrix perspective on the entanglement Hamiltonian, we show that short-range spectral correlations, such as the adjacent gap ratio $\ensuremath{\langle}\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{r}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and the Kullback-Leibler divergence KL1{\text{KL}}_{1}KL1​, sharply detect an ergodic to nonergodic phase transition at the quantum Lifshitz fixed point, and yield precise estimates of the critical point and correlation length exponent. Long-range probes, including the spectral form factor and the associated Thouless time, corroborate this picture, while the variant KL2{\text{KL}}_{2}KL2​ uncovers signatures of a possible nonergodic extended (multifractal) regime at intermediate monitoring strengths. Together, these results establish the entanglement Hamiltonian as a powerful framework for diagnosing metallic, localized, and multifractal regimes in monitored quantum dynamics, and highlight unexpected scaling structures, Fermi liquid, and Lifshitz criticality, that lie beyond current field-theoretic approaches.
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We identify an unconventional algebraic scaling phase in the quantum dynamics of long-range hopping, free fermions, which are exposed to continuous local measurements. The algebraic phase occurs for hopping decay exponents 1<p≲3/2, and features an algebraic entanglement entropy growth, and a slow algebraic decay of the density-density correlation function, both with a fractional exponent. It is separated from a critical phase with logarithmic entanglement growth at small, and an area law phase with constant entanglement entropy at large monitoring rates. A perturbative renormalization group analysis predicts that the transitions to the long-range phase correspond to an unconventional, modified sine-Gordon theory. Exact numerical simulations of the monitored wave functions are in excellent agreement with an analytical replica field theory approach, which confirms the view of the measurement-induced phase transition as a quantum phase transition in the dark state of an effective, non-Hermitian Hamiltonian.
We explore, both analytically and numerically, the quantum dynamics of a many-body free-fermion system subjected to local density measurements. We begin by extending the mapping to the nonlinear sigma-model (NLSM) field theory for the case of finite evolution time T and different classes of initial states, which lead to different NLSM boundary conditions. The analytical formalism is then used to study how quantum correlations gradually develop, with increasing T , from those determined by the initial state towards their steady-state form. The analytical results are confirmed by numerical simulations for several types of initial states. We further consider the long-time limit, when the system in d + 1 space-time dimensions becomes quasi-one-dimensional, and analyze the scaling of the “localization” time (which is simultaneously the purification time and the charge-sharpening time for this class of problems). The analytical predictions for scaling properties are fully confirmed by numerical simulations in a d = 2 model around the measurement-induced phase transition. We use this dynamical approach to determine numerically the measurement-induced transition point and the associated correlation-length critical exponent.