Continuous quantum measurement for general Gaussian unravelings can exist

Nina Megier, Walter T. Strunz, Kimmo Luoma · Physical Review Research · 2020

Quantum measurements and the associated state changes are properly described in the language of instruments.We investigate the properties of a time continuous family of instruments associated with the recently introduced class of general Gaussian non-Markovian stochastic Schrödinger equations.In this article we find that when the covariance matrix for the Gaussian noise satisfies a particular δ-function constraint, the measurement interpretation is possible for a class of models with self-adjoint coupling operator.This class contains, for example the spin-boson and quantum Brownian motion models with colored bath correlation functions.Remarkably, due to quantum memory effects the reduced state, in general, does not obey a closed form master equation while the unraveling has a time continuous measurement interpretation.

Read the paper · More papers on PaperTik