Wave-function approach to dissipative processes: are there quantum jumps?

In a recent Letter Dalibard and coworkers have presented an efficient method of computing the development of an open quantum system based on stochastic evolution of the state vector, in which quantum jumps are represented explicitly. Independently of this pragmatic approach, physicists interested in the “quantum measurement problem” have been led to consider continuous stochastic diffusion equations for the state vector associated to any density operator evolution. We underline the remarkable convergence of these two trends in physics, and argue that these recent developments may lead to new results and insights into quantum phenomena.