Abstract

A physical interpretation of stochastic behaviour of Monte Carlo wavefunctions is obtained by imagining a 100% efficient detector monitoring the state of the surroundings of the system. Discrete changes in the state of this reservoir, detected eg, by photon counting, are accompanied by quantum jumps of the system component of the state vector, but also between jumps the state of the system is modified; in addition to the free evolution of the system, a non-unitary contribtuion to the evolution must be added. Also the no-counts count!

© 1996 Optical Society of America