Quantum Phase in Nanoscopic Superconductors

Using the pseudospin representation and the SU(2) phase operators we introduce a complex parameter to characterize both infinite and finite superconducting systems. While in the bulk limit the parameter becomes identical to the conventional order parameter, in the nanoscopic limit its modulus reduces to the number parity effect parameter and its phase takes discrete values. We evaluate the Josephson coupling energy and show that in bulk superconductor it reproduces the conventional expression and in the nanoscopic limit it leads to quantized Josephson effect. Finally, we study the phase flow or dual Josephson effect in a superconductor with fixed number of electrons.Comment: 11 page

Quantum phase in nanoscopic superconductors

Using the pseudospin representation and the SU(2) phase operators we introduce a complex parameter to characterize both infinite and finite superconducting systems.While in the bulk limit the parameter becomes identical to the conventional order parameter, in the nanoscopic limit its modulus reduces to the number parity effect parameter and its phase takes discrete values. We evaluate the Josephson coupling energy and show that in bulk superconductor it reproduces the conventional expression and in the nanoscopic limit it leads to quantized Josephson effect. Finally, we study the phase flow or dual Josephson effect in a superconductor with fixed number of electrons

Spin Bath Decoherence Mediated by Phonons

We introduce an exactly solvable model to study decoherence of a central spin interacting with a spin bath where the coupling is mediated by phonons which we assume to be in a coherent state or thermal distribution. For the coherent state case, we find that the decoherence factor decays in a Gaussian fashion and it becomes independent of the phonon frequencies at short times. If the phonon energies are much larger than spin-phonon coupling or bath spins are fully polarized, decoherence time becomes independent of the initial phonon state. For the thermal state case, phonons play more important role in decoherence with increasing temperature. We also discuss possible effects of the temperature on spin bath contribution to decoherence.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, to appear in Solid State Communication

Qubit state transfer via discrete-time quantum walks

We propose a scheme for perfect transfer of an unknown qubit state via the discrete-time quantum walk on a line or a circle. For this purpose, we introduce an additional coin operator which is applied at the end of the walk. This operator does not depend on the state to be transferred. We show that perfect state transfer over an arbitrary distance can be achieved only if the walk is driven by an identity or a flip coin operator. Other biased coin operators and Hadamard coin allow perfect state transfer over finite distances only. Furthermore, we show that quantum walks ending with a perfect state transfer are periodic.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Two-dimensional quantum walk under artificial magnetic field

We introduce the Peierls substitution to a two-dimensional discrete-time quantum walk on a square lattice to examine the spreading dynamics and the coin-position entanglement in the presence of an artificial gauge field. We use the ratio of the magnetic flux through the unit cell to the flux quantum as a control parameter. For a given flux ratio, we obtain faster spreading for a small number of steps and the walker tends to be highly localized around the origin. Moreover, the spreading of the walk can be suppressed and decreased within a limited time interval for specific rational values of flux ratio. When the flux ratio is an irrational number, even for a large number of steps, the spreading exhibit diffusive behavior rather than the well-known ballistic one as in the classical random walk and there is a significant probability of finding the walker at the origin. We also analyze the coin-position entanglement and show that the asymptotic behavior vanishes when the flux ratio is different from zero and the coin-position entanglement become nearly maximal in a periodic manner in a long time range.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, sections 3 and 4 revise

Optimal Local Transformations of Flip and Exchange Symmetric Entangled States

Local quantum operations relating multiqubit flip (0-1) and exchange symmetric (FES) states, with the maximum possible probability of success, have been determined by assuming that the states are converted via one-shot FES transformations. It has been shown that certain entangled states are more robust than others, in the sense that the optimum probability of converting these robust states to the states lying in the close neighborhood of separable ones vanish under local FES operations.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Quantum tunnelling and decoherence in nanomagnets

Starting from the observation that at very low temperatures an isolated nanomagnet can be treated as an effective two-state system, we introduce a model to study quantum tunnelling and decoherence phenomena. We assume that the total spin of the magnet interacts with a spin bath. We show that depending upon the interaction strengths the molecule can exhibit tunnelling with or without decoherence. We also investigate the case where the spin-spin interaction is mediated by phonons

Application of the no-signaling principle to obtain quantum cloners for any allowed value of fidelity

Special relativity forbids superluminal influences. Using only the no-signaling principle and an assumption about the form of the Schmidt decomposition, we show that for "any" allowed fidelity there is a "unique" approximate qubit cloner which can be written explicitly. We introduce the prime cloners whose fidelities have multiplicative property and show that the fidelity of the prime cloners for the infinite copy limit is 1/2.Comment: 8 pages, no figure