4 research outputs found
Metastability in Josephson transmission lines
Thermal activation and macroscopic quantum tunneling in current-biased
discrete Josephson transmission lines are studied theoretically. The degrees of
freedom under consideration are the phases across the junctions which are
coupled to each other via the inductances of the system. The resistively
shunted junctions that we investigate constitute a system of N interacting
degrees of freedom with an overdamped dynamics. We calculate the decay rate
within exponential accuracy as a function of temperature and current. Slightly
below the critical current, the decay from the metastable state occurs via a
unique ("rigid") saddlepoint solution of the Euclidean action describing the
simultaneous decay of the phases in all the junctions. When the current is
reduced, a crossover to a regime takes place, where the decay occurs via an
"elastic" saddlepoint solution and the phases across the junctions leave the
metastable state one after another. This leads to an increased decay rate
compared with the rigid case both in the thermal and the quantum regime. The
rigid-to-elastic crossover can be sharp or smooth analogous to first- or
second- order phase transitions, respectively. The various regimes are
summarized in a current-temperature decay diagram.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 3 PS-figures, revised versio
Phase diagram of localization in a magnetic field
The phase diagram of localization is numerically calculated for a
three-dimensional disordered system in the presence of a magnetic field using
the Peierls substitution. The mobility edge trajectory shifts in the
energy-disorder space when increasing the field. In the band center, localized
states near the phase boundary become delocalized. The obtained field
dependence of the critical disorder is in agreement with a power law behavior
expected from scaling theory. Close to the tail of the band the magnetic field
causes localization of extended states.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 3 PS-figures (4 extra references are included, minor
additions), to appear in Phys. Rev. B as a Brief Repor
Crossovers in the thermal decay of metastable states in discrete systems
The thermal decay of linear chains from a metastable state is investigated. A
crossover from rigid to elastic decay occurs when the number of particles, the
single particle energy barrier or the coupling strength between the particles
is varied. In the rigid regime, the single particle energy barrier is small
compared to the coupling strength and the decay occurs via a uniform
saddlepoint solution, with all degrees of freedom decaying instantly.
Increasing the barrier one enters the elastic regime, where the decay is due to
bent saddlepoint configurations using the elasticity of the chain to lower
their activation energy. Close to the rigid-to-elastic crossover, nucleation
occurs at the boundaries of the system. However, in large systems, a second
crossover from boundary to bulk nucleation can be found within the elastic
regime, when the single particle energy barrier is further increased. We
compute the decay rate in the rigid and in the elastic regimes within the
Gaussian approximation. Around the rigid-to-elastic crossover, the calculations
are performed beyond the steepest descent approximation. In this region, the
prefactor exhibits a scaling property. The theoretical results are discussed in
the context of discrete Josephson transmission lines and pancake vortex stacks
that are pinned by columnar defects.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, 7 PS-figure