313 research outputs found
Mesoscopic Spin-Boson Models of Trapped Ions
Trapped ions arranged in Coulomb crystals provide us with the elements to
study the physics of a single spin coupled to a boson bath. In this work we
show that optical forces allow us to realize a variety of spin-boson models,
depending on the crystal geometry and the laser configuration. We study in
detail the Ohmic case, which can be implemented by illuminating a single ion
with a travelling wave. The mesoscopic character of the phonon bath in trapped
ions induces new effects like the appearance of quantum revivals in the spin
evolution.Comment: 4.4 pages, 5 figure
Josephson effect between superconducting nanograins with discrete energy levels
We investigate the Josephson effect between two coupled superconductors,
coupled by the tunneling of pairs of electrons, in the regime that their energy
level spacing is comparable to the bulk superconducting gap, but neglecting any
charging effects. In this regime, BCS theory is not valid, and the notion of a
superconducting order parameter with a well-defined phase is inapplicable.
Using the density matrix renormalization group, we calculate the ground state
of the two coupled superconductors and extract the Josephson energy. The
Josephson energy is found to display a reentrant behavior (decrease followed by
increase) as a function of increasing level spacing. For weak Josephson
coupling, a tight-binding approximation is introduced, which illustrates the
physical mechanism underlying this reentrance in a transparent way. The DMRG
method is also applied to two strongly coupled superconductors and allows a
detailed examination of the limits of validity of the tight-binding model
Spin Tunneling, Berry phases and Doped Antiferromagnets
Interference effects between Berry phase factors in spin tunneling systems
have been discussed in recent Letters by Loss, DiVincenzo and Grinstein and von
Delft and Henley. This Comment points out that Berry phases in spin tunneling
are important in another interesting case: the two dimensional doped
antiferromagnet. I show that the dispersion of a single hole in the t-J model
changes sign as where is the size of the spins. This provides
an interpretation of the numerical results for the s=\half model, and a
prediction for other spin sizes.Comment: 5 pages, LaTe
Weak localization in a system with a barrier: Dephasing and weak Coulomb blockade
We non-perturbatively analyze the effect of electron-electron interactions on
weak localization (WL) in relatively short metallic conductors with a tunnel
barrier. We demonstrate that the main effect of interactions is electron
dephasing which persists down to T=0 and yields suppression of WL correction to
conductance below its non-interacting value. Our results may account for recent
observations of low temperature saturation of the electron decoherence time in
quantum dots.Comment: published version, 10 page
Algebraic Bethe Ansatz for a discrete-state BCS pairing model
We show in detail how Richardson's exact solution of a discrete-state BCS
(DBCS) model can be recovered as a special case of an algebraic Bethe Ansatz
solution of the inhomogeneous XXX vertex model with twisted boundary
conditions: by implementing the twist using Sklyanin's K-matrix construction
and taking the quasiclassical limit, one obtains a complete set of conserved
quantities, H_i, from which the DBCS Hamiltonian can be constructed as a second
order polynomial. The eigenvalues and eigenstates of the H_i (which reduce to
the Gaudin Hamiltonians in the limit of infinitely strong coupling) are exactly
known in terms of a set of parameters determined by a set of on-shell Bethe
Ansatz equations, which reproduce Richardson's equations for these parameters.
We thus clarify that the integrability of the DBCS model is a special case of
the integrability of the twisted inhomogeneous XXX vertex model. Furthermore,
by considering the twisted inhomogeneous XXZ model and/or choosing a generic
polynomial of the H_i as Hamiltonian, more general exactly solvable models can
be constructed. -- To make the paper accessible to readers that are not Bethe
Ansatz experts, the introductory sections include a self-contained review of
those of its feature which are needed here.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Paramagnetic Breakdown of Superconductivity in Ultrasmall Metallic Grains
We study the magnetic-field-induced breakdown of superconductivity in
nm-scale metal grains having a mean electron level spacing (bulk gap). Using a generalized variational BCS approach that
yields good qualitative agreement with measured spectra, we argue that Pauli
paramagnetism dominates orbital diamagnetism, as in the case of thin films in a
parallel magnetic field. However, the first-order transition observed for the
latter can be made continuous by finite size effects. The mean-field procedure
of describing the system by a single pairing parameter breaks down for
.Comment: 4 pages of revtex, 3 postscript figures, uses psfrag.sty, epsfig.sty.
Slightly revised and improved version, matching published versio
Fixed-N Superconductivity: The Crossover from the Bulk to the Few-Electron Limit
We present a truly canonical theory of superconductivity in ultrasmall
metallic grains by variationally optimizing fixed-N projected BCS
wave-functions, which yields the first full description of the entire crossover
from the bulk BCS regime (mean level spacing bulk gap )
to the ``fluctuation-dominated'' few-electron regime (). A
wave-function analysis shows in detail how the BCS limit is recovered for , and how for pairing correlations become
delocalized in energy space. An earlier grand-canonical prediction for an
observable parity effect in the spectral gaps is found to survive the fixed-N
projection.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX, V2: minor charges to mach final printed
versio
Quantum Phase Interference in Magnetic Molecular Clusters
The Landau Zener model has recently been used to measure very small tunnel
splittings in molecular clusters of Fe8, which at low temperature behaves like
a nanomagnet with a spin ground state of S = 10. The observed oscillations of
the tunnel splittings as a function of the magnetic field applied along the
hard anisotropy axis are due to topological quantum interference of two tunnel
paths of opposite windings. Transitions between quantum numbers M = -S and (S -
n), with n even or odd, revealed a parity effect which is analogous to the
suppression of tunnelling predicted for half integer spins. This observation is
the first direct evidence of the topological part of the quantum spin phase
(Berry or Haldane phase) in a magnetic system. We show here that the quantum
interference can also be measured by ac susceptibility measurements in the
thermal activated regime.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, conference proceedings of LT22 (Helsinki,
Finland, August 4-11, 199
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