Monitored quantum transport: full counting statistics of a quantum Hall interferometer

Abstract

We generalize the Levitov-Lesovik formula for the probability distribution function of the electron charge transferred through a phase coherent conductor, to include projective measurements that monitor the chiral propagation in quantum Hall edge modes. When applied to an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the monitoring reduces the visibility of the Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations while preserving the binomial form of the counting statistics, thereby removing a fundamental shortcoming of the dephasing-probe model of decoherence.