The phase diagram of 2D polar condensates in a magnetic field

Spin one condensates in the polar (antiferromagnetic) phase in two dimensions are shown to undergo a transition of the Ising type, in addition to the expected Kosterlitz--Thouless (KT) transition of half vortices, due to the quadratic Zeeman effect. We establish the phase diagram in terms of temperature and the strength of the Zeeman effect using Monte Carlo simulations. When the Zeeman effect is sufficiently strong the Ising and KT transitions merge. For very strong Zeeman field the remaining transition is of the familiar integer KT type.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure

A cluster algorithm for resistively shunted Josephson junctions

We present a cluster algorithm for resistively shunted Josephson junctions and similar physical systems, which dramatically improves sampling efficiency. The algorithm combines local updates in Fourier space with rejection-free cluster updates which exploit the symmetries of the Josephson coupling energy. As an application, we consider the localization transition of a single junction at intermediate Josephson coupling and determine the temperature dependence of the zero bias resistance as a function of dissipation strength.Comment: 4 page

Comment on "Probing vortex unbinding via dipole fluctuations"

We demonstrate that the method suggested by Fertig and Straley [Phys. Rev. B 66, 201402 (2002)] for the identification of different phases in two-dimensional XY models does not allow to make any unambiguous conclusions and make a tentative proposal of another approach to this problem.Comment: The final version - as published in Physical Review B (2 pages). Two paragraphs have been added with a proposal of a new approach to distinguishing phases with bound and unbound vortice

Quantum phase-slips in Josephson junction rings

We study quantum phase-slip (QPS) processes in a superconducting ring containing N Josephson junctions and threaded by an external static magnetic flux. In a such system, a QPS consists of a quantum tunneling event connecting two distinct classical states of the phases with different persistent currents [K. A. Matveev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 096802 (2002)]. When the Josephson coupling energy EJ of the junctions is larger than the charging energy EC = e2/2C where C is the junction capacitance, the quantum amplitude for the QPS process is exponentially small in the ratio EJ/EC. At given magnetic flux each QPS can be described as the tunneling of the phase difference of a single junction of almost 2pi, accompanied by a small harmonic displacement of the phase difference of the other N-1 junctions. As a consequence the total QPS amplitude nu is a global property of the ring. Here we study the dependence of nu on the ring size N taking into account the effect of a finite capacitance C0 to ground which leads to the appearance of low-frequency dispersive modes. Josephson and charging effects compete and lead to a nonmonotonic dependence of the ring critical current on N. For N=infty, the system converges either towards a superconducting or an insulating state, depending on the ratio between the charging energy E0 = e2/2C0 and the Josephson coupling energy EJ.Comment: (19 pages, 12 figures) The final version deviated from the original version. One of the author was removed from the lis

Fluctuations and vortex pattern ordering in fully frustrated XY model with honeycomb lattice

The accidental degeneracy of various ground states in a fully frustrated XY model with a honeycomb lattice is shown to survive even when the free energy of the harmonic fluctuations is taken into account. The reason for that consists in the existence of a hidden gauge symmetry between the Hamiltonians describing the harmonic fluctuations in all these ground states. A particular vortex pattern is selected only when anharmonic fluctuations are taken into account. However, the observation of vortex ordering requires relatively large system size L>>100000.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4, a different method is used to find which state is selected by anharmonic fluctuations, the last third of the text is completly rewritte

Sequence of phase transitions induced in an array of Josephson junctions by their crossover to pi-state

We show that the transition of Josephson junctions between the conventional and pi states caused by the decrease in temperature induces in a regular two-dimensional array of such junctions not just a single phase transition between two phases with different ordering but a sequence of two, three or four phase transitions. The corresponding phase diagrams are constructed for the cases of bipartite (square or honeycomb) and triangular lattices.Comment: 5 pages, v2: as published in EP