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American Physical Society, Physical Review Letters, 14(101), 2008

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.101.140401

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Pure-state quantum trajectories for general non-Markovian systems do not exist

Journal article published in 2008 by Howard Mark Wiseman ORCID, J. M. Gambetta
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

Since the first derivation of non-Markovian stochastic Schrödinger equations, their interpretation has been contentious. In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 080401 (2008)10.1103/Phys. Rev. Lett.100.080401], Diósi claimed to prove that they generate "true single system trajectories [conditioned on] continuous measurement." In this Letter, we show that his proof is fundamentally flawed: the solution to his non-Markovian stochastic Schrödinger equation at any particular time can be interpreted as a conditioned state, but joining up these solutions as a trajectory creates a fiction.