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Physical Review A

Measurement theory and stochastic differential equations in quantum mechanics

Alberto Barchielli

Published Sep 1, 1986• 159 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Continuous (in time) measurements can be introduced in quantum mechanics by using operation-valued measures and quantum stochastic calculus. In this paper quantum stochastic calculus is used for showing the connections between measurement theory and open-system theory. In particular, it is shown how continuous measurements are strictly related to the concept of output channels, introduced in the framework of quantum stochastic differential equations by Gardiner and Collet.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.34.1642

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Continuous (in time) measurements can be introduced in quantum mechanics by using operation-valued measures and quantum stochastic calculus. In this paper quantum stochastic calculus is used for showing the connections between measurement theory and open-system theory. In particular, it is shown how continuous measurements are strictly related to the concept of output channels, introduced in the framework of quantum stochastic differential equations by Gardiner and Collet.
Quantum Open System Theory is nowadays a highly developed field which involves, on the mathematical side, many mathematical concepts such as operator theory, semigroups of operators on certain Banach spaces (algebras), classical and quantum stochastic differential equations. Inside Quantum Open System Theory there is the theory of quantum continual measurements: a quantum system is monitored with continuity in time. This is surely an open system because, apart from possible interactions with the external environment like a thermal bath, the system is interacting with the measuring apparatus. The typical field in which a theory of continual measurements is needed is quantum optics: when light emitted by some system is observed (by counting of photons - direct detection - or through some interference mechanism - heterodyne and homodyne detection) a continual measurement is performed.
The theory of measurements continuous in time in quantum mechanics (quantum continual measurements) has been formulated by using the notions of instrument and positive operator valued measure [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ], arisen inside the operational approach [ 1 , 7 ] to quantum mechanics, by using functional integrals [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], by using quantum stochastic differential equations [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ] and by using classical stochastic differential equations (SDE’s) [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 4 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 6 ]. Various types of SDE’s are involved, and precisely linear and non linear equations for vectors in Hilbert spaces and for trace-class operators. All such equations contain either a diffusive part, or a jump one, or both.
The theory of measurements continuous in time in quantum mechanics (quantum continual measurements) has been formulated by using the notions of instrument and positive operator valued measure, functional integrals, quantum stochastic differential equations and classical stochastic differential equations (SDE's). Various types of SDE's are involved, and precisely linear and non linear equations for vectors in Hilbert spaces and for trace-class operators. All such equations contain either a diffusive part, or a jump one, or both. In this paper we introduce a class of linear SDE's for trace-class operators, relevant to the theory of continual measurements, and we recall how such SDE's are related to instruments and master equations and, so, to the general formulation of quantum mechanics. We do not present the Hilbert space formulation of such SDE's and we make some mathematical simplifications: no time dependence is introduced into the coefficients and only bounded operators on the Hilbert space of the quantum system are considered. Then we introduce the notion of a posteriori state and the non linear SDE satisfied by such states and we give conditions from which such equation is assured to preserve pure states and to send any mixed state into a pure one for large times. Finally we review the known results about the existence and uniqueness of invariant measures in the purely diffusive case and we give some concrete examples of physical systems.
Abstract The stochastic Schrödinger equation, of classical or quantum type, allows to describe open quantum systems under measurement in continuous time. In this paper we review the link between these two descriptions and we study the properties of the output of the measurement. For simplicity we deal only with the diffusive case. Firstly, we discuss the quantum stochastic Schrödinger equation, which is based on quantum stochastic calculus, and we show how to transform it into the classical stochastic Schrödinger equation by diagonalization of suitable commuting quantum observables. Then, we give the a posteriori state, the conditional system state at time t given the output up to that time, and we link its evolution to the classical stochastic Schrödinger equation. Moreover, the relation with quantum filtering theory is shortly discussed. Finally, we study the output of the continuous measurement, which is a stochastic process with probability distribution given by the rules of quantum mechanics. When the output process is stationary, at least in the long run, the spectrum of the process can be introduced and its properties studied. In particular we show how the Heisenberg uncertainty relations give rise to characteristic bounds on the possible spectra and we discuss how this is related to the typical quantum phenomenon of squeezing. We use a simple quantum system, a two-level atom stimulated by a laser, to discuss the differences between homodyne and heterodyne detection and to explicitly show squeezing and anti-squeezing of the homodyne spectrum and the Mollow triplet in the fluorescence spectrum.
The physical idea of a continual observation on a quantum system has been recently formalized by means of the concept of operation valued stochastic process (OVSP). In this article, it is shown how the formalism of quantum stochastic calculus of Hudson and Parthasarathy allows, in a simple way, for constructing a large class of OVSP’s that in particular contains the quantum counting processes of Davies and Srinivas and continual ‘‘Gaussian’’ measurements. This result is obtained by means of a stochastic dilation of the OVSP’s: at the level of the enlarged system probabilities turn out to be expressed in terms of projection valued measures associated with certain time-dependent, commuting, self-adjoint operators.
Abstract This chapter contains the foundations of the stochastic formulation of continuous measurements carried out on an open quantum system. It shows that the time evolution of the state vector, conditioned on the measurement record, is given by a piecewise deterministic process in Hilbert space involving continuous time-evolution periods which are broken by randomly occurring, sudden quantum jumps. This so-called unravelling of the quantum master equation in the form of a stochastic process is based on a close relation between quantum dynamical semigroups and piecewise deterministic processes. The general theory is illustrated by means of a number of examples, such as direct, homodyne, and heterodyne photodetection. The chapter also treats the corresponding description of continuous measurements through stochastic Schr ö dinger equations and stochastic differential equations for the density matrix, as well as the stochastic representation of multitime correlations functions.