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Abstract We present a class of two-dimensional randomized plaquette models, where the multi-spin interaction term, referred to as the plaquette term, is replaced by a single-site spin term with a probability of $1-p$. By varyingp, we observe a ground state phase transition, or equivalently, a phase transition of the symmetry operator. We find that as we varyp, the symmetry operator changes from being extensive to being localized in space. These models can be equivalently understood as 1+1D randomized cellular automaton dynamics, allowing the 2D transition to be interpreted as a 1+1D dynamical absorbing phase transition. In this paper, our primary focus is on the plaquette term with three or five-body interactions, where we explore the universality classes of the transitions. Specifically, for the model with five-body interaction, we demonstrate that it belongs to the same universality class as the measurement-induced entanglement phase transition observed in 1+1D Clifford dynamics, as well as the boundary entanglement transition of the 2D cluster state induced by random bulk Pauli measurements. This work establishes a connection between transitions in classical spin models, cellular automata, and hybrid random circuits. 

We study free fermion systems under adaptive quantum dynamics consisting of unitary gates and projective measurements followed by corrective unitary operations. We further introduce a classical flag for each site, allowing for an active or inactive status which determines whether or not the unitary gates are allowed to apply. In this dynamics, the individual quantum trajectories exhibit a measurement-induced entanglement transition from critical to area-law scaling above a critical measurement rate, similar to previously studied models of free fermions under continuous monitoring. Furthermore, we find that the corrective unitary operations can steer the system into a state characterized by charge-density-wave order. Consequently, an additional phase transition occurs, which can be observed at both the level of the quantum trajectory and the quantum channel. We establish that the entanglement transition and the steering transition are fundamentally distinct. The latter transition belongs to the parity-conserving (PC) universality class, arising from the interplay between the inherent fermionic parity and classical labelling. We demonstrate both the entanglement and the steering transitions via efficient numerical simulations of free fermion systems, which confirm the PC universality class of the latter. 

We study the entanglement dynamics of quantum automaton (QA) circuits in the presence of U(1) symmetry. We find that the second Rényi entropy grows diffusively with a logarithmic correction as $\sqrt{t\ln t}$, saturating the bound established by Huang \cite{Huang_2020}. Thanks to the special feature of QA circuits, we understand the entanglement dynamics in terms of a classical bit string model. Specifically, we argue that the diffusive dynamics stems from the rare slow modes containing extensively long domains of spin 0s or 1s. Additionally, we investigate the entanglement dynamics of monitored QA circuits by introducing a composite measurement that preserves both the U(1) symmetry and properties of QA circuits. We find that as the measurement rate increases, there is a transition from a volume-law phase where the second Rényi entropy persists the diffusive growth (up to a logarithmic correction) to a critical phase where it grows logarithmically in time. This interesting phenomenon distinguishes QA circuits from non-automaton circuits such as U(1)-symmetric Haar random circuits, where a volume-law to an area-law phase transition exists, and any non-zero rate of projective measurements in the volume-law phase leads to a ballistic growth of the Rényi entropy. 

The intensely studied measurement-induced entanglement phase transition has become a hallmark of nonunitary quantum many-body dynamics. Usually, such a transition only appears at the level of each individual quantum trajectory, and is absent for the density matrix averaged over measurement outcomes. In this work, we introduce a class of adaptive random circuit models with feedback that exhibit transitions in both settings. After each measurement, a unitary operation is either applied or not depending on the measurement outcome, which steers the averaged density matrix towards a unique state above a certain measurement threshold. Interestingly, the transition for the density matrix and the entanglement transition in the individual quantum trajectory in general happen at different critical measurement rates. We demonstrate that the former transition belongs to the parity-conserving universality class by explicitly mapping to a classical branching-annihilating random-walk process. 

We explore oscillatory behavior in a family of periodically driven spin chains which are subject to a weak measurement followed by postselection. We discover a transition to an oscillatory phase as the strength of the measurement is increased. By mapping these spin chains to free fermion models, we find that this transition is reflected in the opening of a gap in the imaginary direction. Interestingly, we find a robust, purely real, edge π mode in the oscillatory phase. We establish a correspondence between the complex bulk spectrum and these edge modes. These oscillations are numerically found to be stable against interactions and disorder.