Quantum Trajectories - from Quantum Optics to Bits and Pieces (L5)

Abstract

 In the early 1960's Roy Glauber presented a theory to characterize the temporal fluctuations in photo-detection signals.  Such fluctuations can be signatures of non-classical properties, and the theory of photo-detection gave rise to the field of quantum optics with visions to control atomic light emitters to prepare and apply a variety of quantum states of light in experiments. In the past decades, "bits and pieces" of solid-state materials were manufactured with high purity and precision, enabling observation of similar phenomena with solid state spin systems and superconducting circuits, microwaves and acoustic waves as had been studied with single atoms and photons in quantum optics.
The talk will review more recent methods that refine and elaborate on Glauber's theories to describe the dynamics of open quantum systems, i.e., systems subject to interactions with their environment. These methods reintroduce, but with a plot twist, Niels Bohr's quantum jumps in modern quantum physics, and while being employed for quantum technology applications they imply delightful encounters with the famous discussions between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein on the interpretation of quantum theory.