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1998

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Reviews of topical problems


Decoherence and the theory of continuous quantum measurements


Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prosp. 53, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation

The decoherence of a quantum system, i.e., its becoming partly classical, results from its interaction with the environment and is well described in terms of continuous quantum measurement theory. In the present paper, various approaches to CQM theory are reviewed, of which that using effective complex Hamiltonians is discussed in detail. The effective complex Hamiltonian is obtained from the restricted path integral, the latter highlighting the role of information in the dynamics of the measured system, and is applied to the energy measurement of a two-level system. For such a measurement, quantum transition monitoring is shown to be possible and its back-action on the transition probability analyzed. The performance of such a measurement using a long series of soft observations is described.

Fulltext pdf (346 KB)
Fulltext is also available at DOI: 10.1070/PU1998v041n09ABEH000442
PACS: 03.65.Bz
DOI: 10.1070/PU1998v041n09ABEH000442
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/1998/9/f/
000076559800004
Citation: Menskii M B "Decoherence and the theory of continuous quantum measurements" Phys. Usp. 41 923–940 (1998)
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Оригинал: Менский М Б «Явление декогеренции и теория непрерывных квантовых измерений» УФН 168 1017–1035 (1998); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0168.199809e.1017

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