Imperial College London
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DrEva-MariaGraefe

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Mathematics

Royal Society University Research Fellow (Reader)
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 8549e.graefe CV

 
 
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Location

 

6M35Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Graefe:2022:1751-8121/ac9d73,
author = {Graefe, E-M and Schubert, R and Christie, R and Eastman, J},
doi = {1751-8121/ac9d73},
journal = {Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical},
pages = {1--31},
title = {Quantum-jump vs stochastic Schrödinger dynamics for Gaussian states with quadratic Hamiltonians and linear Lindbladians},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac9d73},
volume = {55},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The dynamics of Gaussian states for open quantum systems described by Lindblad equations can be solved analytically for systems with quadratic Hamiltonians and linear Lindbladians, showing the familiar phenomena of dissipation and decoherence. It is well known that the Lindblad dynamics can be expressed as an ensemble average over stochastic pure-state dynamics, which can be interpreted as individual experimental implementations, where the form of the stochastic dynamics depends on the measurement setup. Here we consider quantum-jump and stochastic Schrödinger dynamics for initially Gaussian states. While both unravellings converge to the same Lindblad dynamics when averaged, the individual dynamics can differ qualitatively. For the stochastic Schrödinger equation, Gaussian states remain Gaussian during the evolution, with stochastic differential equations governing the evolution of the phase-space centre and a deterministic evolution of the covariance matrix. In contrast to this, individual pure-state dynamics arising from the quantum-jump evolution do not remain Gaussian in general. Applying results developed in the non-Hermitian context for Hagedorn wavepackets, we formulate a method to generate quantum-jump trajectories that is described entirely in terms of the evolution of an underlying Gaussian state. To illustrate the behaviours of the different unravellings in comparison to the Lindblad dynamics, we consider two examples in detail, which can be largely treated analytically, a harmonic oscillator subject to position measurement and a damped harmonic oscillator. In both cases, we highlight the differences as well as the similarities of the stochastic Schrödinger and the quantum-jump dynamics.
AU  - Graefe,E-M
AU  - Schubert,R
AU  - Christie,R
AU  - Eastman,J
DO  - 1751-8121/ac9d73
EP  - 31
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 1751-8113
SP  - 1
TI  - Quantum-jump vs stochastic Schrödinger dynamics for Gaussian states with quadratic Hamiltonians and linear Lindbladians
T2  - Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac9d73
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1751-8121/ac9d73
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/100505
VL  - 55
ER  -
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