Postselection-free ballistic-diffusive transition in monitored spin chains

Abstract

We study spin and entanglement dynamics in spin-1/2 XXZ chains under periodic monitoring and show that this system exhibits two measurement-induced phase transitions: a steady-state entanglement phase transition similar to those in monitored quantum circuits and a ballistic-to-diffusive transition in transient dynamics. Specifically, we discover that at low monitoring rate, an initial configuration containing a domain wall $|\uparrow\uparrow\uparrow\ldots \downarrow\downarrow\downarrow\ldots\rangle$ spreads ballistically while, at large monitoring rates, the domain melting is diffusive. Extensive numerical simulations, supported by theoretical arguments, indicate that the ballistic-diffusive transition is intimately interlinked with the entanglement phase transition. In contrast to the entanglement phase transitions, which require exponentially complex postselection, the ballistic-diffusive transition can be observed without postselection and constitutes an experimentally accessible manifestation of the many-body Zeno effect.