Steering Distillation Processes through Zeno dynamics

A quantum system in interaction with a repeatedly measured one undergoes a nonunitary time evolution and is pushed into a subspace substantially determined by the two-system coupling. The possibility of suitably modifying such an evolution through quantum Zeno dynamics (i.e., the generalized quantum Zeno effect) addressing the system toward an a priori decided target subspace is illustrated. Applications and their possible realizations in the context of trapped ions are also discussed.