Zeno and anti-Zeno effect in an open quantum system in the ultrastrong-coupling regime

Abstract: We study the quantum Zeno effect (QZE) and quantum anti-Zeno effect (QAZE) of a two-level system interacting with an environment of harmonic oscillators, the spin-boson model. By applying a numerically exact method based on matrix product states, the previously obtained picture on the influence of counter-rotating terms has to be modified: For physical bath initial states, the transition from QZE to QAZE with increasing measurement interval is only absent at weak coupling, while present at strong coupling. Furthermore, we find that the transition occurs always for the widely used bare bath initial state. Within a more realistic measurement scheme where only the qubit is projectively measured, the above scenario for the bare bath initial state remains qualitatively unchanged, apart from accelerated decay for intermediate measurement intervals.