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arXiv:2607.23871

Entanglement transitions and multifractality in monitored free-fermions with random long-range hopping

Bo Fan, Antonio M. García-García

quant-phSubmitted Jul 26, 2026• Announced Jul 28, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Sep 8, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Jul 26, 2026v2 · Sep 8, 2026
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Abstract

We study the entanglement dynamics of a one-dimensional chain of monitored non-interacting complex fermions with random power-law hopping characterized by a decay exponent $α$. For $α\lesssim 1$, in stark contrast with the case of hopping to nearest neighbors, the scaling of the entanglement entropy (EE) of the steady state with system size $L$ is faster than logarithmic for any monitoring or disorder strength and it tends towards a linear (volume-law) scaling for sufficiently small $α\lesssim 1/2$. For $α> 3/2$, the EE is in the area-law phase, namely, no scaling with $L$, for any monitoring strength. For $1 < α\lesssim 3/2$, we identify an $α$-dependent measurement-induced phase transition (MIPT) at a critical value of the monitoring strength separating the mentioned area-law and sub-volume-law phases. At this critical point, the EE scales logarithmically with system size, and the density-density correlation function, closely related to the EE, exhibits multifractal features. These results highlight the importance of superdiffusive classical hopping in the entanglement dynamic of quantum many-body systems and also help differentiate its role with respect to conventional sources of entanglement such as genuine quantum non-locality.

Comments
13 pages, 15 figures. Corrected typos, revised the last paragraph on page 1 and added four references

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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.
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