A computational toolbox for quantum and atomic optics

A collection of routines is described which largely automates the process o f generating the quantum mechanical equations of motion for problems involv ing systems with relatively few degrees of freedom. Their use allows the us er to adopt a high-level approach to writing simulation programs which conc entrates on the physics of the problem, rather than on the details of the s olution. Examples are taken from the fields of quantum and atomic optics, b ut the toolbox is also useful for problems involving quantum information an d in teaching quantum mechanics. The toolbox has been implemented using the Matlab programming language, but the ideas may be applied to any other obj ect-oriented language.