Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Responses: Universal Spectral Criterion for Measurement-Induced Decay

Quantum Physics arXiv:2608.20702 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 21 Aug 2026] Title:Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Responses: Universal Spectral Criterion for Measurement-Induced Decay Authors:Yu-Xiang Chen, Yuan-De Jin, Wen-Long Ma View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Responses: Universal Spectral Criterion for Measurement-Induced Decay, by Yu-Xiang Chen and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We develop a general framework for characterizing the response of an evolving quantum system to repetitive quantum measurements. Modeling each evolution-measurement cycle as a quantum channel induced by an effective Liouvillian generator, we find that the Liouvillian spectral gap determines the measurement-induced decay rate. We analyze how the spectral gap responds to the measurement frequency, and define a quantum Zeno response as a decrease in the gap with increasing measurement frequency, and an anti-Zeno response as the opposite. We illustrate this criterion for both discrete-time and continuous-time quantum measurements. In an exactly solvable discrete-time qubit model, the exceptional-point spectral coalescence or spectral crossings mark the transition between Zeno and anti-Zeno responses, which can be experimentally distinguished from the long-time decay envelope of the survival probability. In a continuous-time superconducting-qubit defect model, the same transition manifests as smooth extrema of the spectral gap. Our results establish a universal spectral criterion for measurement-induced decay, offering a practical route to identify and manipulate these effects in generic quantum systems. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2608.20702 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2608.20702v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.20702 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Yuxiang Chen [view email] [v1] Fri, 21 Aug 2026 03:18:28 UTC (8,653 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Responses: Universal Spectral Criterion for Measurement-Induced Decay, by Yu-Xiang Chen and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-08 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)