Mayo 30, 2025
11:30 am
Beyond the master equation: distinguishing unravelings via non-linear quantum trajectory averages.
Featured speakers
Eloy Piñol
PhD Student
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Eloy Piñol is a theoretical physicist trained at the University of Barcelona and currently a Ph.D. candidate at ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences, where he investigates the foundations of quantum mechanics, with a focus on open quantum systems, stochastic unravelings, and the role of measurement in quantum dynamics. He holds a Master’s degree in Photonics and previously worked at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), where he contributed to research in machine learning and statistical physics. In 2021, he was part of the Spanish team that won the XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge with an artificial intelligence system for data-driven decision-making, developed in collaboration with the Valencian Government during the COVID-19 crisis. His current research combines ideas from quantum physics and machine learning, exploring quantum trajectory methods, superradiance, and new training algorithms for deep energy-based models.
Abstract: Stochastic unravelings of open quantum dynamics reveal a deeper structure behind the Lindblad master equation and connect quantum measurement theory with continuous-time monitoring of the environment. Depending on how the environment is measured — for example, via direct photon detection or homodyne detection — the conditional evolution of the system follows different stochastic Schrödinger equations (SSEs), each corresponding to a different way of acquiring information from the environment. In this talk, I will show how these SSEs emerge naturally from the unitary dynamics of a system entangled with its environment, combined with repeated measurements on the environment itself. I will start with simple models and build up to the formal derivation of jump-like and diffusive trajectories, emphasizing their physical interpretation and experimental relevance. Finally, I will discuss recent ideas on whether different unravelings can be distinguished operationally — not through their averaged density matrices, which coincide, but via non-linear trajectory-based quantities that retain information about the underlying measurement scheme.
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