Stochastic Schrödinger equations for quantum trajectories offer an alternative and sometimes superior approach to the study of open quantum system dynamics. Here we show that recently established convolutionless non-Markovian stochastic Schrödinger equations may serve as a powerful tool for the derivation of convolutionless master equations for non-Markovian open quantum systems. The most interesting example is quantum Brownian motion (QBM) of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath of oscillators, one of the most employed exactly soluble models of open system dynamics. We show explicitly how to establish the direct connection between the exact convolutionless master equation of QBM and the corresponding convolutionless exact stochastic Schrödinger equation.

• Received 11 December 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.69.052115