Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

MANY-BODY PHYSICS

Measurements make the phase

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 298–299 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Measuring a quantum state often enough can leave you with a completely different phase of matter. Mix in competing measurements and you may find yourself with an entire phase diagram of dynamical quantum states and transitions.

Inspired by the development of coherent and controllable quantum systems in the lab, theorists are now turning to the question of whether quantum many-body systems tend towards equilibrium through their own interactions. Perhaps more intriguingly, they’re also asking what universal non-equilibrium behaviours arise in the systems that do not. One way of probing this scenario exploits a recently discovered mechanism that postpones equilibrium indefinitely by using frequent quantum measurements to stop the spread of quantum information1,2,3. Now, writing in Nature Physics, Ali Lavasani and collaborators4 report that this rapid measurement paradigm can be used to stabilize dynamical analogues of topologically non-trivial quantum phases, offering a recipe with which a wider variety of measurement-stabilized phases can be built and analysed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Non-equilibrium phases induced by quantum measurements.

References

  1. Li, Y., Chen, X. & Fisher, M. P. A. Phys. Rev. B 98, 205136 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chan, A., Nandkishore, R. M., Pretko, M. & Smith, G. Phys. Rev. B 99, 224307 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Skinner, B., Ruhman, J. & Nahum, A. Phys. Rev. X 9, 031009 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Lavasani, A., Alavirad, Y. & Barkeshli, M. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01112-z (2021).

  5. Deutsch, J. M. Rep. Prog. Phys. 81, 082001 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Nahum, A., Ruhman, J., Vijay, S. & Haah, J. Phys. Rev. X 7, 031016 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chiu, C. B., Sudarshan, E. C. G. & Misra, B. Phys. Rev. D 16, 520–529 (1977).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Gottesman, D. Stabilizer Codes and Quantum Error Correction. PhD Dissertation, California Institute of Technology (1925).

  9. Sang, S. & Hsieh, T. H. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.09509 (2020).

  10. Ippoliti, M., Gullans, M. J., Gopalakrishnan, S., Huse, D. A. & Khemani, V. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.09560 (2020).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Brayden Ware & Romain Vasseur

Authors
  1. Brayden Ware
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Romain Vasseur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Brayden Ware or Romain Vasseur.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ware, B., Vasseur, R. Measurements make the phase. Nat. Phys. 17, 298–299 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01131-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01131-w

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing