(Un)conditioned open dynamics in quantum optics

The study of the dynamics of open quantum systems sheds light on dissipative processes in quantum mechanics. Any system under continuous measurement is open and the act of measuring induces abrupt changes of the system’s state (collapses). The evolution conditioned to measurement records generates the so-called quantum trajectories. A continuous (unconditioned) evolution of the system is recovered by averaging over a large number of trajectories. Historically this kind of evolution has been the main focus of theoretical investigations. In this dissertation we consider both conditional and unconditional dynamics of quantum optical systems. Unconditioned dynamics is studied through the collision model paradigm. The formalism is described in detail and used for describing generic systems featuring many quantum emitters coupled to a usually one-dimensional field. The negligible-delay regime is widely explored. Collision models are used to unveil the mechanisms underlying the decoherence-free evolution regime typical of these systems, which has received considerable attention in the last years. Then we investigate conditioned dynamics by broadening the study of statistics of quantum trajectories. Specifically, we exploit the information about the emission’s full-counting statistics from large deviations to define a nonclassicality witness. Finally we come back to collision models in order to extend the theory of biased quantum trajectories from Lindblad-like dynamics to sequences of arbitrary dynamical maps, providing at once a transparent physical interpretation.