Measurement-altered Ising quantum criticality

Abstract

Quantum critical systems constitute appealing platforms for the exploration of novel measurement-induced phenomena due to their innate sensitivity to perturbations. We study the impact of measurement on paradigmatic Ising quantum critical chains using an explicit protocol, whereby correlated ancilla are entangled with the critical chain and then projectively measured. Using a perturbative analytic framework supported by extensive numerical simulations, we demonstrate that measurements can qualitatively alter long-distance correlations in a manner dependent on the choice of entangling gate, ancilla measurement basis, measurement outcome, and nature of ancilla correlations. We derive numerous quantitative predictions for the behavior of correlations in select measurement outcomes, and also identify two strategies for detecting measurement-altered Ising criticality in measurement-averaged quantities. First, averaging the square of the order-parameter expectation value over measurement outcomes retains memory of order parameter condensation germinated in fixed measurement outcomes -- even though on average the order parameter itself vanishes. Second, we show that, in certain cases, observables can be averaged separately over measurement outcomes residing in distinct symmetry sectors, and that these `symmetry-resolved averages' reveal measurement effects even when considering standard linearly averaged observables. We identify complementary regimes in which symmetry-resolved averages and post-selection can be pursued reasonably efficiently in experiment, with the former generically outperforming the latter in the limit of sufficiently weak ancilla-critical chain entanglement. Our framework naturally adapts to more exotic quantum critical points and highlights opportunities for potential experimental realization in NISQ hardware and in Rydberg arrays.