Retroactive Quantum Jumps in a Strongly Coupled Atom-Field System

Abstract

We investigate a novel type of conditional dynamic that occurs in the strongly driven Jaynes-Cummings system with dissipation. Extending the work of Alsing and Carmichael [Quantum Opt. 3, 13 (1991)], we present a combined numerical and analytic study of the stochastic master equation that describes the system's conditional evolution when the cavity output is continuously observed via homodyne detection, but atomic spontaneous emission is not monitored at all. We find that quantum jumps of the atomic state are induced by its dynamical coupling to the optical field, in order retroactively to justify atypical fluctuations occurring in the homodyne photocurrent.