Quantum Zeno Effect of General Quantum Operations

Abstract

In this paper, we show that the quantum Zeno effect occurs for any frequent quantum measurements or operations. As a result of the Zeno effect, for non-selective measurements (or trace preserving completely positive maps), the evolution of a measurement invariant state is governed by an effective Hamiltonian defined by the measurements and the free-evolution Hamiltonian. For selective measurements, the state may change randomly with time according to measurement outcomes, while some physical quantities (operators) still evolve as the effective dynamics.