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arXiv:2609.12736

Synchronized Spin Trajectories under Collective Weak Measurements

Yiwen Han, Konghao Sun, Wei Yi, Johannes Schachenmayer

quant-phcond-mat.stat-mechSubmitted Sep 11, 2026• Announced Sep 14, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Sep 30, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Sep 11, 2026v2 · Sep 30, 2026
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Abstract

We consider locally driven-dissipative quantum spins that undergo a continuous weak measurement of their collective spin. We show that such a system can exhibit full spin-synchronization in trajectories corresponding to the same measurement record. Mathematically, we demonstrate that this is a general consequence of the irreducibility of the quantum Markov semigroup generated by the Lindbladian, in combination with a transitive symmetry, in particular spin-permutation symmetry. When breaking the irreducibility, e.g. in the absence of local dissipation, the system can exhibit a weaker form of partial synchronization. Given the general origin, this measurement-induced phenomenon arises in a broad class of many-body systems.

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19 pages, 8 figures

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We consider locally driven-dissipative quantum spins that undergo a continuous weak measurement of their collective spin. We show that such a system can exhibit full spin-synchronization in trajectories corresponding to the same measurement record. Mathematically, we demonstrate that this is a general consequence of the irreducibility of the quantum Markov semigroup generated by the Lindbladian, in combination with a transitive symmetry, in particular spin-permutation symmetry. When breaking the irreducibility, e.g. in the absence of local dissipation, the system can exhibit a weaker form of partial synchronization. Given the general origin, this measurement-induced phenomenon arises in a broad class of many-body systems.
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Quantum measurement can profoundly impact the dynamics of many-body systems, for instance, inducing phase transitions from volume-law chaotic phases to area-law localized phases. While chaotic phases emerge naturally in generic many-body systems, the experimental realization of a fully localized phase driven by measurement remains challenging, primarily owing to the stringent requirement of near-perfect isolation of the system from environmental dissipation. Here we experimentally observe measurement-induced localization phenomena in an interacting 13C^{13}\mathrm{C}13C nuclear spin system in diamond. In contrast to previous circuit-model-based experiments, our well-isolated system evolves under a physical many-body Hamiltonian with measurements intervening at intervals. By implementing either projective measurements on a single spin or global weak measurements on the entire system, we observe substantially prolonged spin autocorrelation times as the measurement frequency increases. Our results, combined with numerical simulations, provide evidence that quantum measurement can drive a many-body system into a localized regime, and lay the groundwork for future experimental investigations into measurement-induced many-body dynamics and related entanglement phenomena.