DISSIPATION OF QUANTUM SUPERPOSITIONS - LOCALIZATION AND JUMPS

Developments in cavity QED provide the means to construct non-classica l light fields which may be regarded as superpositions of coherent sta tes. These are highly sensitive to dissipation. We examine the evoluti on of individual realizations of quantum superpositions conditioned by two distinct measurement schemes: amplitude (heterodyne) measurements and excitation number (counting) measurements. These two schemes resu lt in either localization or quantum jumps in phase space, which we il lustrate for a number of non-classical initial superpositions.