It is shown that the distinct oscillations of the purity of the single-particle density matrix for many-body open quantum systems with balanced gain and loss reported by Dast et al. [Phys. Rev. A 93, 033617 (2016)] can also be found in closed quantum systems of which subsystems experience a gain and loss of particles. This is demonstrated with two different lattice setups for cold atoms, viz. a ring of six lattice sites with periodic boundary conditions and a linear chain of four lattice wells. In both cases pronounced purity oscillations are found, and it is shown that they can be made experimentally accessible via the average contrast in interference experiments.
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