Unbounded entanglement production via a dissipative impurity

TL;DR

This paper studies how localized dissipation in a free-fermion chain can generate unbounded entanglement over time, with a formula linking entanglement growth to the impurity's absorption properties, and identifies regimes of entanglement growth and suppression.

Contribution

It derives a hydrodynamic formula for entanglement dynamics in a dissipative free-fermion system, revealing dissipation-induced entanglement growth and Zeno regime effects.

Findings

Entanglement grows linearly over time due to dissipation.

The entanglement dynamics depend solely on the impurity's absorption coefficient.

Strong dissipation leads to entanglement arrest in the Zeno regime.

Abstract

We investigate the entanglement dynamics in a free-fermion chain initially prepared in a Fermi sea and subjected to localized losses (dissipative impurity). We derive a formula describing the dynamics of the entanglement entropies in the hydrodynamic limit of long times and large intervals. The result depends only on the absorption coefficient of the effective delta potential describing the impurity in the hydrodynamic limit. Genuine dissipation-induced entanglement is certified by the linear growth of the logarithmic negativity. Finally, in the quantum Zeno regime at strong dissipation the entanglement growth is arrested (Zeno entanglement death).