An introduction to monitored quantum systems and quantum trajectories: spectrum, typicality, and phases

TL;DR

This paper provides an introductory review of monitored quantum systems, focusing on quantum trajectories, spectral properties, typical behaviors, and measurement-induced phase transitions in quantum dynamics.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive overview of the formalism of monitored quantum systems, highlighting recent insights into spectral analysis and phase transitions driven by measurements.

Findings

Spectral properties relate to trajectory behaviors like ergodicity and purification.

Lyapunov exponents serve as indicators of measurement-induced phase transitions.

Quantum trajectories exhibit typical behaviors influenced by measurement dynamics.

Abstract

Thanks to recent experimental advances in simulating and detecting quantum dynamics with high precision and controllability, our understanding of the physics of monitored quantum systems has considerably deepened over the past decades. In this article, we provide an introductory theoretical review on the basic formalisms governing open quantum dynamics under measurement, along with recent developments in their spectral and typical aspects. After reviewing quantum measurement theory, we introduce the concept of quantum trajectories, which are the conditional dynamics of monitored states shaped by a set of measurement outcomes. We then discuss the spectral properties of the dynamical map describing the evolution averaged over measurement outcomes. As has recently been recognized, these spectral features are intimately connected to whether quantum trajectories exhibit typical behaviors, such as ergodicity and purification. Moreover, we introduce Lyapunov exponents of typical quantum trajectories and discuss how these quantities serve as indicators of measurement-induced phase transitions in monitored quantum many-body systems.