Evolution of a qubit under the influence of a succession of weak measurements with unitary feedback -: art. no. 022310

We investigate the evolution of a single qubit subject to a continuous unitary "free" dynamics and an additional interrupting influence which occurs periodically. One may imagine a dynamically evolving closed quantum system which becomes open at certain times. The interrupting influence is represented by an operation, which is assumed to equivalently describe a nonselective weak measurement. It may be decomposed into the action of a positive operator, which in the case of a measurement represents the pure measurement part, followed by a unitary backaction depending on the result of the measurement (feedback). Equations of motion for the state evolution are derived in the form of difference equations. In the lowest order, the stochastic feedbacks cause a modification of the "free" Hamiltonian by an additional appropriately averaged Hamiltonian. The positive operator specifies a decoherence rate and results in a decoherence term. Two higher-order terms are discussed. One shows decoherence induced by the stochastic feedbacks and the other represents generalized friction. The selective evolution is investigated. In order to bridge the gap between sequential and continuous measurements, the continuum limit to a master equation is performed. Additional correcting higher-order terms are worked out in the Appendixes.