DISSIPATIVE QUANTUM-SYSTEMS IN STRONG LASER FIELDS - STOCHASTIC WAVE-FUNCTION METHOD AND FLOQUET THEORY

A generalization of the stochastic wave-function method to open quantu m systems under the influence of strong laser fields is derived. To th is end, quantum-statistical ensembles of reduced state vectors are rep resented in terms of probability distributions on the projective Hilbe rt space of the open system. By employing the Floquet expansion of the quantum time evolution, this representation is shown to lead in the M arkov approximation to a piecewise deterministic stochastic process fo r the reduced wave function. The realizations of the stochastic proces s consist of smooth deterministic parts that are interrupted by sudden jumps. The jump operators are the eigenoperators of the Floquet Hamil tonian and describe instantaneous transitions between Floquet states. Two examples are given that serve to illustrate the method and the sto chastic simulation technique of the process.