Quantum telegraph behavior without photons
Abstract
We show that a simple model of non-Hermitian noise gives rise to the telegraph switching behavior seen in experiments with single qubits, without any reference to the existence of photons as corpuscles. This lends support to a continuous collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics, but can also be viewed as a model of continuous detection of a steady-state process in the incoherent limit. We show explicitly that such a system obeys the Born rule for particle counting statistics, even though no particle behavior has been invoked at any point in the calculation.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Quantum Mechanics and Applications
Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
Quantum Information and Cryptography
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review A
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 4
- Publication date
- 12 March 2026
- Language
- EN