Fluctuation-Induced Quantum Zeno Effect

TL;DR

This paper explores how many-body quantum fluctuations influence the quantum Zeno effect in a one-dimensional interacting fermion gas with localized dissipation, revealing novel suppression of particle escape and altered transport.

Contribution

It demonstrates that many-body effects significantly modify the quantum Zeno effect in interacting fermion systems, extending understanding beyond microscopic physics.

Findings

Escape probability near Fermi energy vanishes regardless of dissipation strength

Transport properties are qualitatively altered by dissipation, akin to the Kane-Fisher barrier

Many-body quantum fluctuations lead to new phenomena in dissipative quantum gases

Abstract

An isolated quantum gas with a localized loss features a non-monotonic behavior of the particle loss rate as an incarnation of the quantum Zeno effect, as recently shown in experiments with cold atomic gases. While this effect can be understood in terms of local, microscopic physics, we show that novel many-body effects emerge when non-linear gapless quantum fluctuations become important. To this end, we investigate the effect of a local dissipative impurity on a one-dimensional gas of interacting fermions. We show that the escape probability for modes close to the Fermi energy vanishes for an arbitrary strength of the dissipation. In addition, transport properties across the impurity are qualitatively modified, similarly to the Kane-Fisher barrier problem. We substantiate these findings using both a microscopic model of spinless fermions and a Luttinger liquid description.