On the Unraveling of Open Quantum Dynamics

Abstract

It is well known that the state operator of an open quantum system can be generically represented as the solution of a time-local equation — a quantum master equation. Unraveling in quantum trajectories offers a picture of open system dynamics dual to solving master equations. In the unraveling picture, physical indicators are computed as Monte Carlo averages over a stochastic process valued in the Hilbert space of the system. This approach is particularly adapted to simulate systems in large Hilbert spaces. We show that the dynamics of an open quantum system generically admits an unraveling in the Hilbert space of the system described by a Markov process generated by ordinary stochastic differential equations for which rigorous concentration estimates are available. The unraveling can be equivalently formulated in terms of norm-preserving state vectors or in terms of linear “ostensible” processes trace preserving only on average. We illustrate the results in the case of a two level system in a simple boson environment. Next, we derive the state-of-the-art form of the Diósi-Gisin-Strunz Gaussian random ostensible state equation in the context of a model problem. This equation provides an exact unraveling of open systems in Gaussian environments. We compare and contrast the two unravelings and their potential for applications to quantum error mitigation.