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Quantum trajectory of the one-atom maser

Tristan Benoist, Laurent Bruneau and Clément Pellegrini

Vol. 6 (2025), No. 3, 1073–1110
Abstract

The evolution of a quantum system undergoing repeated indirect measurements naturally leads to a Markov chain on the set of states which is called a quantum trajectory. In this paper we consider a specific model of such a quantum trajectory associated to the one-atom maser model. It describes the evolution of one mode of the quantized electromagnetic field in a cavity interacting with two-level atoms. When the system is nonresonant we prove that this Markov chain admits a unique invariant probability measure. We moreover prove convergence in the Wasserstein metric towards this invariant measure. These results rely on a purification theorem: almost surely the state of the system approaches the set of pure states. Compared to similar results in the literature, the system considered here is infinite dimensional. While existence of an invariant measure is a consequence of the compactness of the set of states in finite dimension, in infinite dimension existence of an invariant measure is not free. Furthermore usual purification criteria in finite dimension have no straightforward equivalent in infinite dimensions.

Keywords
quantum trajectories, maser model, Markov chains, invariant measures, indirect quantum measurement
Mathematical Subject Classification
Primary: 60J05, 81P15, 81P16
Milestones
Received: 29 March 2024
Revised: 20 January 2025
Accepted: 17 June 2025
Published: 11 August 2025
Authors
Tristan Benoist
Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse, UMR5219
Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS IMT
F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 9
France
Laurent Bruneau
Département de Mathématiques, CNRS UMR 8088
CY Cergy Paris University
Cergy-Pontoise
France
Clément Pellegrini
Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse, UMR5219
Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS IMT
F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 9
France