Potential barrier mimicking frequent location measurements in quantum Zeno dynamics

We show that quantum Zeno dynamics can be mimicked by the isolated evolution of an unobserved system in an effective potential. Monitoring frequently whether a particle remains in a region of space leads to the same wave-packet dynamics as placing the region on top of a potential barrier and letting the particle evolve on its own, without external couplings. We focus on very frequent but not continuous observation so that the particle abandons the initial region with some finite probability. The height of the barrier relative to the surroundings for a high frequency ν of the observations being mimicked is found numerically to be hν/2, where h is Planck’s constant.