Phase transitions induced by standard and predetermined measurements in transmon arrays

Abstract

The confluence of unitary dynamics and non-unitary measurements gives rise to intriguing and relevant phenomena, generally referred to as measurement-induced phase transitions. These transitions have been observed in quantum systems composed of trapped ions and superconducting quantum devices. However, their experimental realization demands substantial resources, primarily owing to the classical tracking of measurement outcomes, known as post-selection of trajectories. In this work, we first describe the statistical properties of an interacting transmon array which is repeatedly measured, and predict the behavior of relevant quantities in the area-law phase using a combination of the replica method and non-Hermitian perturbation theory. We show numerically that a transmon array, modeled by an attractive Bose-Hubbard model, in which local measurements of the number of bosons are probabilistically interleaved, exhibits a phase transition in the entanglement entropy properties of the ensemble of trajectories in the steady state. Furthermore, by using deterministic feedback operations after the local number measurements, the distribution of the number of bosons measured at a single site carries information on the phase in the entanglement of individual trajectories. Interestingly, we can extract information about the phase and the phase transition from simple observables without considering an absorbing state in the feedback pattern. This implies that the feedback measurement approach might be a viable experimental option to use simple observables to study some aspects of the entanglement phase transition in individual trajectories.