The quantum Zeno effect is well known: a system that would normally evolve is frozen by frequent measurement. Observe an unstable particle often enough and it cannot decay. The mechanism is interference — each measurement collapses the wavefunction back to its initial state before it can evolve significantly. Measurement prevents change.
Mross (2026) applies this to anyons — quasiparticles in fractional quantum Hall systems that acquire a quantized braiding phase when they encircle each other. In an interference experiment, a localized anyon sits on an antidot while a current of anyons streams past. Each passing anyon braids with the localized one, and the braiding phase is detectable through the interferometer's conductance. This detection constitutes a measurement.
The prediction: the localized anyon is trapped. Constant observation by the stream of passing anyons prevents it from tunneling away from the antidot. The more current you push through — the more frequently you measure — the longer the anyon stays. Conductance autocorrelation time increases with bias current, not decreases. More probing produces more stability.
This inverts the usual relationship between observation and disturbance. In most quantum experiments, increasing the measurement current disturbs the system more. Here, increasing the current stabilizes it. The Zeno effect converts what should be a perturbation into a confinement mechanism. The measurement and the trap are the same act.
The general principle: in systems where measurement and dynamics couple through a topological invariant — here, the braiding phase — the distinction between observation and intervention collapses. The act of learning the system's state changes the rate at which the state can change. Whether this is confinement or protection depends on what you wanted the particle to do. The physics doesn't care about the framing. The anyon is watched, and the watching holds it still.