We have investigated how the decay dynamics of an unstable quantum system is affected by a false measurement, where the decay is monitored by detecting a decay product but the active energy band of the detector does not match the energy of the decay product. It is shown that, although such a measurement is ineffective and has almost no effect if the detector response is slow, the detectability of decay is increased and the decay is accelerated considerably if the response is fast. This is due to the new decay channel, which is generated as a counteraction of measurement.

• Received 23 February 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.030401