68 research outputs found
Topologically protected quantum bits from Josephson junction arrays
All physical implementations of quantum bits (qubits), carrying the
information and computation in a putative quantum computer, have to meet the
conflicting requirements of environmental decoupling while remaining
manipulable through designed external signals. Proposals based on quantum
optics naturally emphasize the aspect of optimal isolation, while those
following the solid state route exploit the variability and scalability of
modern nanoscale fabrication techniques. Recently, various designs using
superconducting structures have been successfully tested for quantum coherent
operation, however, the ultimate goal of reaching coherent evolution over
thousands of elementary operations remains a formidable task. Protecting qubits
from decoherence by exploiting topological stability, a qualitatively new
proposal due to Kitaev, holds the promise for long decoherence times, but its
practical physical implementation has remained unclear so far. Here, we show
how strongly correlated systems developing an isolated two-fold degenerate
quantum dimer liquid groundstate can be used in the construction of
topologically stable qubits and discuss their implementation using Josephson
junction arrays.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Spacetime and vacuum as seen from Moscow
An extended text of the talk given at the conference ``2001: A Spacetime
Odyssey'', to be published in the Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference of
the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
21-25 May 2001, M.J. Duff and J.T. Liu eds., World Scientific, Singapore, 2002;
and of Historical Lecture ``Vacuum as seen from Moscow'' at the CERN Summer
School, 10 August, 2001. Contents: Introduction; Pomeranchuk on vacuum; Landau
on parity, P, and combined parity, CP; Search and discovery of ; "Mirror world"; Zeldovich and cosmological term; QCD vacuum
condensates; Sakharov and baryonic asymmetry of the universe, BAU; Kirzhnits
and phase transitions; Vacuum domain walls; Monopoles, strings, instantons, and
sphalerons; False vacuum; Inflation; Brane and Bulk; Acknowledgments;
References.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
Two Energy Scales and two Quasiparticle Dynamics in the Superconducting State of Underdoped Cuprates
The superconducting state of underdoped cuprates is often described in terms
of a single energy-scale, associated with the maximum of the (d-wave) gap.
Here, we report on electronic Raman scattering results, which show that the gap
function in the underdoped regime is characterized by two energy scales,
depending on doping in opposite manners. Their ratios to the maximum critical
temperature are found to be universal in cuprates. Our experimental results
also reveal two different quasiparticle dynamics in the underdoped
superconducting state, associated with two regions of momentum space: nodal
regions near the zeros of the superconducting gap and antinodal regions. While
antinodal quasiparticles quickly loose coherence as doping is reduced, coherent
nodal quasiparticles persist down to low doping levels. A theoretical analysis
using a new sum-rule allows us to relate the low-frequency-dependence of the
Raman response to the temperature-dependence of the superfluid density, both
controlled by nodal excitations.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Powerlaw optical conductivity with a constant phase angle in high Tc superconductors
In certain materials with strong electron correlations a quantum phase
transition (QPT) at zero temperature can occur, in the proximity of which a
quantum critical state of matter has been anticipated. This possibility has
recently attracted much attention because the response of such a state of
matter is expected to follow universal patterns defined by the quantum
mechanical nature of the fluctuations. Forementioned universality manifests
itself through power-law behaviours of the response functions. Candidates are
found both in heavy fermion systems and in the cuprate high Tc superconductors.
Although there are indications for quantum criticality in the cuprate
superconductors, the reality and the physical nature of such a QPT are still
under debate. Here we identify a universal behaviour of the phase angle of the
frequency dependent conductivity that is characteristic of the quantum critical
region. We demonstrate that the experimentally measured phase angle agrees
precisely with the exponent of the optical conductivity. This points towards a
QPT in the cuprates close to optimal doping, although of an unconventional
kind.Comment: pdf format, 9 pages, 4 color figures include
Imaging spontaneous currents in superconducting arrays of pi-junctions
Superconductors separated by a thin tunneling barrier exhibit the Josephson
effect that allows charge transport at zero voltage, typically with no phase
shift between the superconductors in the lowest energy state. Recently,
Josephson junctions with ground state phase shifts of pi proposed by theory
three decades ago have been demonstrated. In superconducting loops,
pi-junctions cause spontaneous circulation of persistent currents in zero
magnetic field, analogous to spin-1/2 systems. Here we image the spontaneous
zero-field currents in superconducting networks of temperature-controlled
pi-junctions with weakly ferromagnetic barriers using a scanning SQUID
microscope. We find an onset of spontaneous supercurrents at the 0-pi
transition temperature of the junctions Tpi = 3 K. We image the currents in
non-uniformly frustrated arrays consisting of cells with even and odd numbers
of pi-junctions. Such arrays are attractive model systems for studying the
exotic phases of the 2D XY-model and achieving scalable adiabatic quantum
computers.Comment: Pre-referee version. Accepted to Nature Physic
Mott physics and band topology in materials with strong spin-orbit interaction
Recent theory and experiment have revealed that strong spin-orbit coupling
can have dramatic qualitative effects on the band structure of weakly
interacting solids. Indeed, it leads to a distinct phase of matter, the
topological band insulator. In this paper, we consider the combined effects of
spin-orbit coupling and strong electron correlation, and show that the former
has both quantitative and qualitative effects upon the correlation-driven Mott
transition. As a specific example we take Ir-based pyrochlores, where the
subsystem of Ir 5d electrons is known to undergo a Mott transition. At weak
electron-electron interaction, we predict that Ir electrons are in a metallic
phase at weak spin-orbit interaction, and in a topological band insulator phase
at strong spin-orbit interaction. Very generally, we show that with increasing
strength of the electron-electron interaction, the effective spin-orbit
coupling is enhanced, increasing the domain of the topological band insulator.
Furthermore, in our model, we argue that with increasing interactions, the
topological band insulator is transformed into a "topological Mott insulator"
phase, which is characterized by gapless surface spin-only excitations. The
full phase diagram also includes a narrow region of gapless Mott insulator with
a spinon Fermi surface, and a magnetically ordered state at still larger
electron-electron interaction.Comment: 10+ pages including 3+ pages of Supplementary Informatio
Superconducting Nanocircuits for Topologically Protected Qubits
For successful realization of a quantum computer, its building blocks
(qubits) should be simultaneously scalable and sufficiently protected from
environmental noise. Recently, a novel approach to the protection of
superconducting qubits has been proposed. The idea is to prevent errors at the
"hardware" level, by building a fault-free (topologically protected) logical
qubit from "faulty" physical qubits with properly engineered interactions
between them. It has been predicted that the decoupling of a protected logical
qubit from local noises would grow exponentially with the number of physical
qubits. Here we report on the proof-of-concept experiments with a prototype
device which consists of twelve physical qubits made of nanoscale Josephson
junctions. We observed that due to properly tuned quantum fluctuations, this
qubit is protected against magnetic flux variations well beyond linear order,
in agreement with theoretical predictions. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of topologically protected superconducting qubits.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
On the (anisotropic) uniform metallic ground states of fermions interacting through arbitrary two-body potentials in d dimensions
We demonstrate that the skeleton of the Fermi surface S_{F;s} pertaining to a
uniform metallic ground state (corresponding to fermions with spin index s) is
determined by the Hartree-Fock contribution to the dynamic self-energy. The
Fermi surface S_{F;s} consists of all points which in addition to satisfying
the quasi-particle equation in terms of the Hartree-Fock self-energy, fulfill
the equation S_{s}(k) = 0, where S_{s}(k) is defined in the main text; the set
of k points which satisfy the Hartree-Fock quasi-particle equation but fail to
satisfy S_{s}(k) = 0, constitute the pseudo-gap region of the putative Fermi
surface of the interacting system. We consider the behaviour of the
ground-state momentum-distribution function n_{s}(k) for k in the vicinity of
S_{F;s} and show that whereas for the uniform metallic ground states of the
conventional Hubbard Hamiltonian n_{s}(k) is greater/less than 0.5 for k
approaching S_{F;s} from inside/outside the Fermi sea, for interactions of
non-zero range these inequalities can be violated (without thereby contravening
the condition of the non-negativity of the possible jump in n_{s}(k) on k
crossing S_{F;s} from directly inside to directly outside the Fermi sea). We
discuss, in the light of the findings of the present work, the growing
experimental evidence with regard to the `frustration' of the kinetic energy of
the charge carriers in the normal states of the copper-oxide-based
high-temperature superconducting compounds. [Short abstract]Comment: 30 pages, 3 postscript figures. Brought into conformity with the
published versio
Detection of Geometric Phases in Superconducting Nanocircuits
When a quantum mechanical system undergoes an adiabatic cyclic evolution it
acquires a geometrical phase factor in addition to the dynamical one. This
effect has been demonstrated in a variety of microscopic systems. Advances in
nanotechnologies should enable the laws of quantum dynamics to be tested at the
macroscopic level, by providing controllable artificial two-level systems (for
example, in quantum dots and superconducting devices). Here we propose an
experimental method to detect geometric phases in a superconducting device. The
setup is a Josephson junction nanocircuit consisting of a superconducting
electron box. We discuss how interferometry based on geometrical phases may be
realized, and show how the effect may applied to the design of gates for
quantum computation.Comment: 12 page
Holographic Superconductors
A holographic model of superconductors based on the action proposed by
Benini, Herzog, and Yarom [arXiv:1006.0731] is studied. This model has a
charged spin two field in an AdS black hole spacetime. Working in the probe
limit, the normalizable solution of the spin two field in the bulk gives rise
to a superconducting order parameter at the boundary of the AdS. We
calculate the fermion spectral function in this\ superconducting background and
confirm the existence of fermi arcs for non-vanishing Majorana couplings. By
changing the relative strength of the and condensations, the
position and the size of the fermi arcs are changed. When , the
spectrum becomes isotropic and the spectral function is s-wave like. By
changing the fermion mass, the fermi momentum is changed. We also calculate the
conductivity for these holographic superconductors where time reversal
symmetry has been broken spontaneously. A non-vanishing Hall conductivity is
obtained even without an external magnetic field.Comment: 24 pages,17 figures, Add more discussions on hall conductivity, two
new figures, Matched with published versio
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