Low-lying excitations in superconducting bilayer systems

The ground and first excited state of two superconducting layers in interaction are studied considering two different coupling terms, one represented by the standard Josephson interaction, and one new, which is a superexchange pairing force between bilayer pairs. It is shown that a moderate-to strong Josephson interaction produces a low-lying collective state, pictured as an out-of-phase oscillation of the BCS gauge angles of the two layers. This antisymmetric angular oscillation might explain the 41 meV resonance observed in the neutron scattering experiments. The bilayer pairs are formed by electrons from different layers with an antiparallel orientation of the spins, being related to the antiferromagnetic arrangement. The pair operators within the layers together with the bilayer pairs generate by commutation an so(5) algebra. It is shown that the transition between the superconducting and antiferromagnetic phases can be explained assuming the dependence on concentration of the bilayer pairing strength, with maximum at half-filling.Comment: Latex, three postscript figures; replaced to correct page format error

Variational Principle for Mixed Classical-Quantum Systems

An extended variational principle providing the equations of motion for a system consisting of interacting classical, quasiclassical and quantum components is presented, and applied to the model of bilinear coupling. The relevant dynamical variables are expressed in the form of a quantum state vector which includes the action of the classical subsystem in its phase factor. It is shown that the statistical ensemble of Brownian state vectors for a quantum particle in a classical thermal environment can be described by a density matrix evolving according to a nonlinear quantum Fokker-Planck equation. Exact solutions of this equation are obtained for a two-level system in the limit of high temperatures, considering both stationary and nonstationary initial states. A treatment of the common time shared by the quantum system and its classical environment, as a collective variable rather than as a parameter, is presented in the Appendix.Comment: 16 pages, LaTex; added Figure 2 and Figure

Quantum Coherence Oscillations in Antiferromagnetic Chains

Macroscopic quantum coherence oscillations in mesoscopic antiferromagnets may appear when the anisotropy potential creates a barrier between the antiferromagnetic states with opposite orientations of the Neel vector. This phenomenon is studied for the physical situation of the nuclear spin system of eight Xe atoms arranged on a magnetic surface along a chain. The oscillation period is calculated as a function of the chain constant. The environmental decoherence effects at finite temperature are accounted assuming a dipole coupling between the spin chain and the fluctuating magnetic field of the surface. The numerical calculations indicate that the oscillations are damped by a rate $\sim (N-1)/ \tau$, where $N$ is the number of spins and $\tau$ is the relaxation time of a single spin.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, two postscript figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.