Search

A cascade of two-level superconducting artificial atoms -- a source and a probe -- strongly coupled to a semi-infinite waveguide is a promising tool for observing nontrivial phenomena in quantum nonlinear optics. The probe atom can scatter an antibunched radiation emitted from the source, thereby generating a field with specific properties. We experimentally demonstrate wave mixing between nonclassical light from the coherently cw-pumped source and another coherent wave acting on the probe. We observe unique features in the wave mixing stationary spectrum which differs from mixing spectrum of two classical waves on the probe. These features are well described by adapting the theory for a strongly coupled cascaded system of two atoms. We further analyze the theory to predict non-classical mixing spectra for various ratios of atoms' radiative constants. Both experimental and numerical results confirm the domination of multi-photon scattering process with only a single photon from the source. We evaluate entanglement of atoms in the quasistationary state and illustrate the connection between the expected second-order correlation function of source's field and wave mixing side peaks corresponding to a certain number of scattered photons., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, RevTex 4.2

The potential of employing higher orders of the Trotter-Suzuki decomposition of the evolution operator for more effective simulations of quantum systems on a noisy quantum computer is explored. By examining the transverse-field Ising model and the XY model, it is demonstrated that when the gate error is decreased by approximately an order of magnitude relative to typical modern values, higher-order Trotterization becomes advantageous. This form of Trotterization yields a global minimum of the overall simulation error, comprising both the mathematical error of Trotterization and the physical error arising from gate execution., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

We conduct a numerical investigation of the dynamics of the central spin model in the presence of measurement processes. This model holds promise for experimental exploration due to its topology, which facilitates the natural distinction of a central particle and the quantum bath as different subsystems, allowing for the examination of entanglement phase transitions. To characterize the measurement-induced phase transition in this system, we employ a recently developed method based on second R\'enyi entropy in dual space. Our simulations account for decoherence, energy relaxation, and gate errors. We determine critical measurement rates and demonstrate that they significantly differ from those predicted by a simple approach based on mutual entropy., Comment: 10 pages

Quantum computers can be used for the solution of various problems of mathematical physics. In the present paper, we consider a discretized version of the heat equation and address its solution on quantum computer using variational Anzats tree approach (ATA). We extend this method originally proposed for the system of linear equations to tackle full time dependent heat equation. The key ingredients of our method are (i) special probabilistic quantum circuit in order to add heat sources to temperature distribution, (ii) limiting auxiliary register in the preparation of quantum state, (iii) utilizing a robust cluster of repetitive nodes in the anzats tree structure. We suggest that our procedure provides an exponential speedup compared to the classical algorithms in the case of time dependent heat equation., Comment: 12 pages

We address a learning-based quantum error mitigation method, which utilizes deep neural network applied at the postprocessing stage, and study its performance in presence of different types of quantum noises. We concentrate on the simulation of Trotterized dynamics of 2D spin lattice in the regime of high noise, when expectation values of bounded traceless observables are strongly suppressed. By using numerical simulations, we demonstrate a dramatic improvement of data quality for both local weight-1 and weight-2 observables for the depolarizing and inhomogeneous Pauli channels. At the same time, the effect of coherent $ZZ$ crosstalks is not mitigated, so that in practise crosstalks should be at first converted into incoherent errors by randomized compiling., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

We apply the scattering matrix formalism to wave mixing on a quantum two-level system. We carry out the fermionization of the two-level system degrees of freedom using the Popov-Fedotov semions, calculate n-particle Green's function, and apply the Lehmann-Symanzik-Zimmermannn reduction procedure. Using the developed approach, we provide a consistent quantum explanation of the appearance of coherent side peaks observed in an experiment on the scattering of bichromatic radiation on a two-level artificial atom \cite{dmitriev2019probing}. We show that the spectrum observed in the experiment is the result of bosonic stimulated scattering of photons from one mode of the bichromatic drive to another and vice versa.

Variational quantum algorithms are a promising tool for solving partial differential equations. The standard approach for its numerical solution are finite difference schemes, which can be reduced to the linear algebra problem. We consider three approaches to solve the heat equation on a quantum computer. Using the direct variational method we minimize the expectation value of a Hamiltonian with its ground state being the solution of the problem under study. Typically, an exponential number of Pauli products in the Hamiltonian decomposition does not allow for the quantum speed up to be achieved. The Hadamard test based approach solves this problem, however, the performed simulations do not evidently prove that the ansatz circuit has a polynomial depth with respect to the number of qubits. The ansatz tree approach exploits an explicit form of the matrix what makes it possible to achieve an advantage over classical algorithms. In our numerical simulations with up to $n=11$ qubits, this method reveals the exponential speed up., Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures

Quantum walks are an analog of classical random walks in quantum systems. Quantum walks have smaller hitting times compared to classical random walks on certain types of graphs, leading to a quantum advantage of quantum-walks-based algorithms. An important feature of quantum walks is that they are accompanied by the excitation transfer from one site to another, and a moment of hitting the destination site is characterized by the maximum probability amplitude of observing the excitation on this site. It is therefore prospective to consider such problems as candidates for quantum advantage demonstration, since gate errors can smear out a peak in the transfer probability as a function of time, nevertheless leaving it distinguishable. We investigate the influence of quantum noise on hitting time and fidelity of a typical quantum walk problem - a perfect state transfer (PST) over a qubit chain. We simulate dynamics of a single excitation over the chain of qubits in the presence of typical noises of a quantum processor (homogeneous and inhomogeneous Pauli noise, crosstalk noise, thermal relaxation, and dephasing noise). We find that Pauli noise mostly smears out a peak in the fidelity of excitation transfer, while crosstalks between qubits mostly affect the hitting time. Knowledge about these noise patterns allows us to propose an error mitigation procedure, which we use to refine the results of running the PST on a simulator of a noisy quantum processor., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures

We theoretically consider wave mixing under the irradiation of a single qubit by two photon fields. The first signal is a classical monochromatic drive, while the second one is a nonclassical light. Particularly, we address two examples of a nonclassical light: (i) a broadband squeezed light and (ii) a periodically excited quantum superposition of Fock states with 0 and 1 photons. The mixing of classical and nonclassical photon fields gives rise to side peaks due to the elastic multiphoton scattering. We show that side peaks structure is distinct from the situation when two classical fields are mixed. The most striking feature is that some peaks are absent. The analysis of peak amplitudes can be used to probe photon statistics in the nonclassical mode., Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

Deep neural networks (DNN) can be applied at the post-processing stage for the improvement of the results of quantum computations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors. Here, we propose a method based on this idea, which is most suitable for digital quantum simulation characterized by the periodic structure of quantum circuits consisting of Trotter steps. A key ingredient of our approach is that it does not require any data from a classical simulator at the training stage. The network is trained to transform data obtained from quantum hardware with artificially increased Trotter steps number (noise level) towards the data obtained without such an increase. The additional Trotter steps are fictitious, i.e., they contain negligibly small rotations and, in the absence of hardware imperfections, reduce essentially to the identity gates. This preserves, at the training stage, information about relevant quantum circuit features. Two particular examples are considered that are the dynamics of the transverse-field Ising chain and XY spin chain, which were implemented on two real five-qubit IBM Q processors. A significant error reduction is demonstrated as a result of the DNN application that allows us to effectively increase quantum circuit depth in terms of Trotter steps., Comment: 11 pages

We demonstrate non-equilibrium steady-state photon transport through a chain of five coupled artificial atoms simulating the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model. Using transmission spectroscopy, we show that the system retains many-particle coherence despite being coupled strongly to two open spaces. We show that system energy bands may be visualized with high contrast using cross-Kerr interaction. For vanishing disorder, we observe the transition of the system from the linear to the nonlinear regime of photon blockade in excellent agreement with the input-output theory. Finally, we show how controllable disorder introduced to the system suppresses this non-local photon transmission. We argue that proposed architecture may be applied to analog simulation of many-body Floquet dynamics with even larger arrays of artificial atoms paving an alternative way to demonstration of quantum supremacy, Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, supplemental material

We propose a realization of two remarkable effects of Dicke physics in quantum simulation of light-matter many-body interactions with artificial quantum systems. These effects are a superradiant decay of an ensemble of qubits and the opposite radiation trapping effect. We show that both phenomena coexist in the crossover regime of a "moderately bad" single-mode cavity coupled to the qubit subsystem. Depending on the type of the initial state and on the presence of multipartite entanglement in it, the dynamical features can be opposite resulting either in the superradiance or in the radiation trapping despite of the fact that the initial state contains the same number of excited qubits. The difference originates from the symmetrical or nonsymmetrical character of the initial wave function of the ensemble, which corresponds to indistinguishable or distinguishable emitters. We argue that a coexistence of both effects can be used in dynamical quantum simulators to demonstrate realization of Dicke physics, effects of multipartite quantum entanglement, as well as quantum interference and thus to deeply probe quantum nature of these artificial quantum systems., Comment: 10 pages

In recent years, there has been a significant progress in the development of digital quantum processors. The state-of-the-art quantum devices are imperfect, and fully-algorithmic fault-tolerant quantum computing is a matter of future. Until technology develops to the state with practical error correction, computational approaches other than the standard digital one can be used to avoid execution of the most noisy quantum operations. We demonstrate how a hybrid digital-analog approach allows simulating dynamics of a transverse-field Ising model without standard two-qubit gates, which are currently one of the most problematic building blocks of quantum circuits. We use qubit-qubit crosstalks (couplings) of IBM superconducting quantum processors to simulate Trotterized dynamics of spin clusters and then we compare the obtained results with the results of conventional digital computation based on two-qubit gates from the universal set. The comparison shows that digital-analog approach significantly outperforms standard digital approach for this simulation problem, despite of the fact that crosstalks in IBM quantum processors are small. We argue that the efficiency of digital-analog quantum computing can be improved with the help of more specialized processors, so that they can be used to efficiently implement other quantum algorithms. This indicates the prospect of a digital-to-analog strategy for near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers., Comment: 19 pages, to be published in Physical Review A

In a view of recent proposals for the realization of anisotropic light-matter interaction in such platforms as (i) non-stationary or inductively and capacitively coupled superconducting qubits, (ii) atoms in crossed fields and (iii) semiconductor heterostructures with spin-orbital interaction, the concept of generalized Dicke model, where coupling strengths of rotating wave and counter-rotating wave terms are unequal, has attracted great interest. For this model, we study photon fluctuations in the critical region of normal-to-superradiant phase transition when both the temperatures and numbers of two-level systems are finite. In this case, the superradiant quantum phase transition is changed to a fluctuational region in the phase diagram that reveals two types of critical behaviors. These are regimes of Dicke model (with discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry), and that of (anti-) and Tavis-Cummings $U(1)$ models. We show that squeezing parameters of photon condensate in these regimes show distinct temperature scalings. Besides, relative fluctuations of photon number take universal values. We also find a temperature scales below which one approaches zero-temperature quantum phase transition where quantum fluctuations dominate. Our effective theory is provided by a non-Goldstone functional for condensate mode and by Majorana representation of Pauli operators. We also discuss Bethe ansatz solution for integrable $U(1)$ limits., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Substantial revisions made, the title changed. The version accepted in Phys. Rev. A

Methods of processing quantum data become more important as quantum computing devices improve their quality towards fault tolerant universal quantum computers. These methods include discrimination and filtering of quantum states given as an input to the device that may find numerous applications in quantum information technologies. In the present paper, we address a scheme of a classification of input states, which is nondestructive and deterministic for certain inputs, while probabilistic, in general case. This can be achieved by incorporating phase estimation algorithm into the hybrid quantum-classical computation scheme, where quantum block is trained classically. We perform proof-of-principle implementation of this idea using superconducting quantum processor of IBM Quantum Experience. Another aspect we are interested in is a mitigation of errors occurring due to the quantum device imperfections. We apply a series of heuristic tricks at the stage of classical postprocessing in order to improve raw experimental data and to recognize patterns in them. These ideas may find applications in other realization of hybrid quantum-classical computations with noisy quantum machines., Comment: 18 pages

The analysis of single-mode photon fluctuations and their counting statistics at the superradiant phase transition is presented. The study concerns the equilibrium Dicke model in a regime where the Rabi frequency, related to a coupling of the photon mode with a finite-number qubit environment, plays a role of the transition's control parameter. We use the effective Matsubara action formalism based on the representation of Pauli operators as bilinear forms with complex and Majorana fermions. Then, we address fluctuations of superradiant order parameter and quasiparticles. The average photon number, the fluctuational Ginzburg-Levanyuk region of the phase transition and Fano factor are evaluated. We determine the cumulant generating function which describes a full counting statistics of equilibrium photon number. Exact numerical simulation of the superradiant transition demonstrates quantitative agreement with analytical calculations., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; revised version

We point out that realization of quantum communication protocols in programmable quantum computers provides a deep benchmark for capabilities of real quantum hardware. Particularly, it is prospective to focus on measurements of entropy-based characteristics of the performance and to explore whether a "quantum regime" is preserved. We perform proof-of-principle implementations of superdense coding and quantum key distribution BB84 using 5- and 16-qubit superconducting quantum processors of IBM Quantum Experience. We focus on the ability of these quantum machines to provide an efficient transfer of information between distant parts of the processors by placing Alice and Bob at different qubits of the devices. We also examine the ability of quantum devices to serve as quantum memory and to store entangled states used in quantum communication. Another issue we address is an error mitigation. Although it is at odds with benchmarking, this problem is nevertheless of importance in a general context of quantum computation with noisy quantum devices. We perform such a mitigation and noticeably improve some results., Comment: 25 pages

We point out that superconducting quantum computers are prospective for the simulation of the dynamics of spin models far from equilibrium, including nonadiabatic phenomena and quenches. The important advantage of these machines is that they are programmable, so that different spin models can be simulated in the same chip, as well as various initial states can be encoded into it in a controllable way. This opens an opportunity to use superconducting quantum computers in studies of fundamental problems of statistical physics such as the absence or presence of thermalization in the free evolution of a closed quantum system depending on the choice of the initial state as well as on the integrability of the model. In the present paper, we performed proof-of-principle digital simulations of two spin models, which are the central spin model and the transverse-field Ising model, using 5- and 16-qubit superconducting quantum computers of the IBM Quantum Experience. We found that these devices are able to reproduce some important consequences of the symmetry of the initial state for the system's subsequent dynamics, such as the excitation blockade. However, lengths of algorithms are currently limited due to quantum gate errors. We also discuss some heuristic methods which can be used to extract valuable information from the imperfect experimental data., Comment: 26 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1710.09659

The influence of individual impurities of Fe on the electronic properties of topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ is studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. The microscope tip is used in order to remotely charge/discharge Fe impurities. The charging process is shown to depend on the impurity location in the crystallographic unit cell, on the presence of other Fe impurities in the close vicinity, as well as on the overall doping level of the crystal. We present a qualitative explanation of the observed phenomena in terms of tip-induced local band bending. Our observations evidence that the specific impurity neighborhood and the position of the Fermi energy with respect to the Dirac point and bulk bands have both to be taken into account when considering the electron scattering on the disorder in topological insulators., Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters, minor bugs were corrected

We implement several quantum algorithms in real five-qubit superconducting quantum processor IBMqx4 to perform quantum computation of the dynamics of spin-1/2 particles interacting directly and indirectly through the boson field. Particularly, we focus on effects arising due to the presence of entanglement in the initial state of the system. The dynamics is implemented in a digital way using Trotter expansion of evolution operator. Our results demonstrate that dynamics in our modeling based on real device is governed by quantum interference effects being highly sensitive to phase parameters of the initial state. We also discuss limitations of our approach due to the device imperfection as well as possible scaling towards larger systems., Comment: 11 pages

We consider a dissipative evolution of parametrically-driven qubits-cavity system under the periodical modulation of coupling energy between two subsystems, which leads to the amplification of counterrotating processes. We reveal a very rich dynamical behavior of this hybrid system. In particular, we find that the energy dissipation in one of the subsystems can enhance quantum effects in another subsystem. For instance, optimal cavity decay assists to stabilize entanglement and quantum correlations between qubits even in the steady state and to compensate finite qubit relaxation. On the contrary, energy dissipation in qubit subsystem results in the enhanced photon production from vacuum for strong modulation, but destroys both quantum concurrence and quantum mutual information between qubits. Our results provide deeper insights to nonstationary cavity quantum electrodynamics in context of quantum information processing and might be of importance for dissipative quantum state engineering., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review A

We consider dynamics of a disordered ensemble of qubits interacting with single mode photon field, which is described by exactly solvable inhomogeneous Dicke model. In particular, we concentrate on the crossover from few-qubit systems to the system of many qubits and analyze how collective behavior of coupled qubits-cavity system emerges despite of the broadening. We show that quantum interference effects survive in the mesoscopic regime -- dynamics of an entangled Bell state encoded into the qubit subsystem remains highly sensitive to the symmetry of the total wave function. Moreover, relaxation of these states is slowed down due to the formation of collective dark states weakly coupled to light. Dark states also significantly influence dynamics of excitations of photon subsystem by absorbing them into the qubit subsystem and releasing quasiperiodically in time. We argue that predicted phenomena can be useful in quantum technologies based on superconducting qubits. For instance, they provide tools to deeply probe both collective and quantum properties of such artificial macroscopic systems., Comment: 18 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

We consider an exactly solvable inhomogeneous Dicke model which describes an interaction between a disordered ensemble of two-level systems with single mode boson field. The existing method for evaluation of Richardson-Gaudin equations in the thermodynamical limit is extended to the case of Bethe equations in Dicke model. Using this extension, we present expressions both for the ground state and lowest excited states energies as well as leading-order finite-size corrections to these quantities for an arbitrary distribution of individual spin energies. We then evaluate these quantities for an equally-spaced distribution (constant density of states). In particular, we study evolution of the spectral gap and other related quantities. We also reveal regions on the phase diagram, where finite-size corrections are of particular importance., Comment: 19 pages, extended version, accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics B

We consider a superconducting qubit coupled to the nonstationary transmission line cavity with modulated frequency taking into account energy dissipation. Previously, it was demonstrated that in the case of a single nonadiabatical modulation of a cavity frequency there are two channels of a two-level system excitation which are due to the absorption of Casimir photons and due to the counterrotating wave processes responsible for the dynamical Lamb effect. We show that the parametric periodical modulation of the resonator frequency can increase dramatically the excitation probability. Remarkably, counterrotating wave processes under such a modulation start to play an important role even in the resonant regime. Our predictions can be used to control qubit-resonator quantum states as well as to study experimentally different channels of a parametric qubit excitation., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; revised version accepted in Physics Letters A

Superconducting circuits provide a new platform to study nonstationary cavity QED phenomena. An example of such a phenomenon is a dynamical Lamb effect which is a parametric excitation of an atom due to the nonadiabatic modulation of its Lamb shift. This effect has been initially introduced for a natural atom in a varying cavity, while we suggested its realization in a superconducting qubit-cavity system with dynamically tunable coupling. In the present paper, we study the interplay between the dynamical Lamb effect and the energy dissipation, which is unavoidable in realistic systems. We find that despite of naive expectations this interplay can lead to unexpected dynamical regimes. One of the most striking results is that photon generation from vacuum can be strongly enhanced due to the qubit relaxation, which opens a new channel for such a process. We also show that dissipation in the cavity can increase the qubit excited state population. Our results can be used for the experimental observation and investigation of the dynamical Lamb effect and accompanying quantum effects., Comment: 14 pages

A natural atom placed into a cavity with time-dependent parameters can be parametrically excited due to the interaction with the quantized photon mode. One of the channels of such a process is the dynamical Lamb effect, induced by a nonadiabatic modulation of atomic level Lamb shift. However, in experiments with natural atoms it is quite difficult to isolate this effect from other mechanisms of atom excitation. We point out that a transmission line cavity coupled with a superconducting qubit (artificial macroscopic atom) provides a unique platform for the observation of the dynamical Lamb effect. A key idea is to exploit a dynamically tunable qubit-resonator coupling, which was implemented quite recently. By varying nonadiabatically the coupling, it is possible to parametrically excite a qubit through a nonadiabatic modulation of the Lamb shift, even if the cavity was initially empty. A dynamics of such a coupled system is studied within the Rabi model with time-dependent coupling constant and beyond the rotating wave approximation. An efficient method to increase the effect through the periodic and nonadiabatic switching of a qubit-resonator coupling energy is proposed., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

We analyze conditions of applicability of grand-canonical mean-field Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory to the evaluation of an interaction energy in the ground state of small-sized superconductors. We argue that this theory fails to describe correctly an interaction energy, when an average distance between energy levels near the Fermi energy due to the size quantization becomes of the order of the single-pair binding energy. In conventional superconductors, this quantity is much smaller than the superconducting gap., Comment: 5 pages, no figures

We address a generalized Richardson model (Russian doll BCS model), which is characterized by the breaking of time-reversal symmetry. This model is known to be exactly solvable and integrable. We point out that the Russian doll BCS model, on the level of Hamiltonian, is also particle-hole symmetric. This implies that the same state can be expressed both in the particle and hole representations with two different sets of Bethe roots. We then derive exact relations between Bethe roots in the two representations, which can hardly be obtained staying on the level of Bethe equations. In a quasi-classical limit, similar identities for usual Richardson model, known from literature, are recovered from our results. We also show that these relations for Richardson roots take a remarkably simple form at half-filling and for a symmetric with respect to the middle of the interaction band distribution of one-body energy levels, since, in this special case, the rapidities in the particle and hole representations up to the translation satisfy the same system of equations., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures

Richardson approach provides an exact solution of the pairing Hamiltonian. This Hamiltonian is characterized by the electron-hole pairing symmetry, which is however hidden in Richardson equations. By analyzing this symmetry and using an additional conjecture, fulfilled in solvable limits, we suggest a simple expression of the ground state energy for an equally-spaced energy-level model, which is applicable along the whole crossover from the superconducting state to the pairing fluctuation regime. Solving Richardson equations numerically, we demonstrate a good accuracy of our expression., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. B

Richardson equations can be mapped on the classical electrostatic problem in two dimensions. We have recently suggested a new analytical approach to these equations in the thermodynamical limit, which is based on the `probability' of the system of charges to be in a given configuration at the effective temperature equal to the interaction constant. In the present paper, we apply this approach to excited states of the Richardson pairing model. We focus on the equally-spaced situation and address arbitrary fillings of the energy layer, where interaction acts. The `partition function' for the classical problem on the plane, which is given by Selberg-type integral, is evaluated exactly. Three regimes for the energy gap are identified, which can be treated as the dilute regime of pairs, BCS regime, and dilute regime of holes., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure

We consider two possible mechanisms for single-vortex fluctuative entry/exit through the surface barrier in ultrathin superconducting disk-shaped nanoislands made of Pb and consisting of just few monoatomic layers, which can be fabricated using modern techniques. We estimate tunnelling probabilities and establish criteria for the crossover between these two mechanisms depending on magnetic field and system sizes. For the case of vortex entry, quantum tunnelling dominates on the major part of the temperature/flux phase diagram. For the case of vortex exit, thermal activation turns out to be more probable. This nontrivial result is due to the subtle balance between the barrier height and width, which determine rates of the thermal activation and quantum tunneling, respectively., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

The Bogoliubov approach to superconductivity provides a strong mathematical support to the wave function ansatz proposed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS). Indeed, this ansatz --- with all pairs condensed into the same state --- corresponds to the ground state of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian. Yet, this Hamiltonian only is part of the BCS Hamiltonian. As a result, the BCS ansatz definitely differs from the BCS Hamiltonian ground state. This can be directly shown either through a perturbative approach starting from the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian, or better by analytically solving the BCS Schr\"{o}dinger equation along Richardson-Gaudin exact procedure. Still, the BCS ansatz leads not only to the correct extensive part of the ground state energy for an arbitrary number of pairs in the energy layer where the potential acts --- as recently obtained by solving Richardson-Gaudin equations analytically --- but also to a few other physical quantities such as the electron distribution, as here shown. The present work also considers arbitrary filling of the potential layer and evidences the existence of a super dilute and a super dense regime of pairs, with a gap \emph{different} from the usual gap. These regimes constitute the lower and upper limits of density-induced BEC-BCS cross-over in Cooper pair systems., Comment: 15 pages, no figures

It is known that solutions of Richardson equations can be represented as stationary points of the "energy" of classical free charges on the plane. We suggest to consider "probabilities" of the system of charges to occupy certain states in the configurational space at the effective temperature given by the interaction constant, which goes to zero in the thermodynamical limit. It is quite remarkable that the expression of "probability" has similarities with the square of Laughlin wave function. Next, we introduce the "partition function", from which the ground state energy of the initial quantum-mechanical system can be determined. The "partition function" is given by a multidimensional integral, which is similar to Selberg integrals appearing in conformal field theory and random-matrix models. As a first application of this approach, we consider a system with the constant density of energy states at arbitrary filling of the energy interval, where potential acts. In this case, the "partition function" is rather easily evaluated using properties of the Vandermonde matrix. Our approach thus yields quite simple and short way to find the ground state energy, which is shown to be described by a single expression all over from the dilute to the dense regime of pairs. It also provides additional insights into the physics of Cooper-paired states., Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure; final version, accepted for publication in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

We extend the one-pair Cooper configuration towards Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) model of superconductivity by adding one-by-one electron pairs to an energy layer where a small attraction acts. To do it, we solve Richardson's equations analytically in the dilute limit of pairs on the one-Cooper pair scale. We find, through only keeping the first order term in this expansion, that the $N$ correlated pair energy reads as the energy of $N$ isolated pairs within a $N(N-1)$ correction induced by the Pauli exclusion principle which tends to decrease the average pair binding energy when the pair number increases. Quite remarkably, extension of this first-order result to the dense regime gives the BCS condensation energy exactly. This leads us to suggest a different understanding of the BCS condensation energy with a pair number equal to the number of pairs feeling the potential and an average pair binding energy reduced by Pauli blocking to half the single Cooper pair energy - instead of the more standard but far larger superconducting gap., Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures

In the recent experiment by Cren \textit{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{102}, 127005 (2009)], no hysteresis for vortex penetration and expulsion from the nano-island of Pb was observed. In the present paper, we argue that this effect can be associated with the thermoactivated surmounting of the surface barrier by a vortex. The typical entrance (exit) time is found analytically from the Fokker-Planck equation, written in the form suitable for the extreme vortex confinement. We show that this time is several orders of magnitude smaller than 1 second under the conditions of the experiment considered. Our results thus demonstrate a possibility for the thermal suppression of the surface barrier in nanosized low-$T_{c}$ superconductors. We also briefly discuss other recent experiments on vortices in related structures., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures

Thermal fluctuations of the order parameter in an ultrathin triangular shaped superconducting structure are studied near $T_{c}$, in zero applied field. We find that the order parameter is prone to much larger fluctuations in the corners of the structure as compared to its interior. This geometry-induced localization of thermal fluctuations is attributed to the fact that condensate confinement in the corners is characterised by a lower effective dimensionality, which favors stronger fluctuations., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

While the one-Cooper pair problem is now a textbook exercise, the energy of two pairs of electrons with opposite spins and zero total momentum has not been derived yet, the exact handling of Pauli blocking between bound pairs being not that easy for N=2 already. The two-Cooper pair problem however is quite enlightening to understand the very peculiar role played by the Pauli exclusion principle in superconductivity. Pauli blocking is known to drive the change from 1 to $N$ pairs, but no precise description of this continuous change has been given so far. Using Richardson procedure, we here show that Pauli blocking increases the free part of the two-pair ground state energy, but decreases the binding part when compared to two isolated pairs - the excitation gap to break a pair however increasing from one to two pairs. When extrapolated to the dense BCS regime, the decrease of the pair binding while the gap increases strongly indicates that, at odd with common belief, the average pair binding energy cannot be of the order of the gap., Comment: 9 pages, no figures, final version

We extend the well-known Cooper's problem beyond one pair and study how this dilute limit is connected to the many-pair BCS condensate. We find that, all over from the dilute to the dense regime of pairs, Pauli blocking induces the same "moth-eaten effect" as the one existing for composite boson excitons. This effect makes the average pair binding energy decrease linearly with pair number, bringing it, in the standard BCS configuration, to half the single-pair value. This proves that, at odds with popular understanding, the BCS gap is far larger than the broken pair energy. The increase comes from Pauli blocking between broken and unbroken pairs. Possible link between our result and the BEC-BCS crossover is also discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Pis'ma v ZhETF (JETP Letters)

The influence of random pinning on the vortex dynamics in a periodic square potential under an external drive is investigated. Using theoretical approach and numerical experiments, we found several dynamical phases of vortex motion that are different from the ones for a regular pinning potential. Vortex transfer is controlled by kinks and antikinks, which either preexist in the system or appear spontaneously in pairs and then propagate in groups. When kinks and antikinks collide, they annihilate., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

By using the composite many-body theory for Frenkel excitons we have recently developed, we here derive the ground state energy of $N$ Frenkel excitons in the Born approximation through the Hamiltonian mean value in a state made of $N$ identical $\mathbf{Q=0}$ excitons. While this quantity reads as a density expansion in the case of Wannier excitons, due to many-body effects induced by fermion exchanges between $N$ composite particles, we show that the Hamiltonian mean value for $N$ Frenkel excitons only contains a first order term in density, just as for elementary bosons. Such a simple result comes from a subtle balance, difficult to guess a priori, between fermion exchanges for two or more Frenkel excitons appearing in Coulomb term and the ones appearing in the $N$ exciton normalization factor - the cancellation being exact within terms in $1/N_{s}$ where $N_{s}$ is the number of atomic sites in the sample. This result could make us naively believe that, due to the tight binding approximation on which Frenkel excitons are based, these excitons are just bare elementary bosons while their composite nature definitely appears at various stages in the precise calculation of the Hamiltonian mean value., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

We study experimentally the photoconductivity of CdS-CdSe sintered granular films obtained by the screen printing method. We mostly focus on the dependences of photoconductivity on film's microstructure, which varies with changing heat-treatment conditions. The maximum photoconductivity is found for samples with compact packing of individual grains, which nevertheless are separated by gaps. Such a microstructure is typical for films heat-treated during an intermediate (optimal) time. In order to understand whether the dominant mechanism of charge transfer is identical with the one in monocrystals, we perform temperature measurements of photoresistance. Corresponding curves have the same peculiar nonmonotonic shape as in CdSe monocrystals, from which we conclude that the basic mechanism is also the same. It is suggested that the optimal heat-treatment time appears as a result of a competition between two mechanisms: improvement of film's connectivity and its oxidation. Photoresistance is also measured in vacuum and in helium atmosphere, which suppress oxygen and water absorption/chemisorption at intergrain boundaries. We demonstrate that this suppression increases photoconductivity, especially at high temperatures., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, final version

We study theoretically the simultaneous effect of a regular and a random pinning potentials on the vortex lattice structure at filling factor of 1. This structure is determined by a competition between the square symmetry of regular pinning array, by the intervortex interaction favoring a triangular symmetry, and by the randomness trying to depin vortices from their regular positions. Both analytical and molecular-dynamics approaches are used. We construct a phase diagram of the system in the plane of regular and random pinning strengths and determine typical vortex lattice defects appearing in the system due to the disorder. We find that the total disordering of the vortex lattice can occur either in one step or in two steps. For instance, in the limit of weak pinning, a square lattice of pinned vortices is destroyed in two steps. First, elastic chains of depinned vortices appear in the film; but the vortex lattice as a whole remains still pinned by the underlying square array of regular pinning sites. These chains are composed into fractal-like structures. In a second step, domains of totally depinned vortices are generated and the vortex lattice depins from regular array., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures

We present a many-body theory for Frenkel excitons which takes into account their composite nature exactly. Our approach is based on four commutators similar to the ones we previously proposed for Wannier excitons. They allow us to calculate any physical quantity dealing with $N$ excitons in terms of "Pauli scatterings" for carrier exchange in the absence of carrier interaction and "interaction scatterings" for carrier interaction in the absence of carrier exchange. We show that Frenkel excitons have a novel "transfer assisted exchange scattering", specific to these excitons. It comes from indirect Coulomb processes between localized atomic states. These indirect processes, commonly called "electron-hole exchange" in the case of Wannier excitons and most often neglected, are crucial for Frenkel excitons, as they are the only ones responsible for the excitation transfer. We also show that in spite of the fact that Frenkel excitons are made of electrons and holes on the same atomic site, so that we could naively see them as elementary particles, they definitely are composite objects, their composite nature appearing through various properties, not always easy to guess. The present many-body theory for Frenkel excitons is thus going to appear as highly valuable to securely tackle their many-body physics, as in the case of nonlinear optical effects in organic semiconductors., Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures in separate files. Final version accepted for publication in European Physical Journal B

Starting from the microscopic hamiltonian describing free electrons in a periodic lattice, we derive the hamiltonian appropriate to Frenkel excitons. This is done through a grouping of terms different from the one leading to Wannier excitons. This grouping makes appearing the atomic states as a relevant basis to describe Frenkel excitons in the second quantization. Using them, we derive the Frenkel exciton creation operators as well as the commutators which rule these operators and which make the Frenkel excitons differing from elementary bosons. The main goal of the present paper is to provide the necessary grounds for future works on Frenkel exciton many-body effects, with the composite nature of these particles treated exactly through a procedure similar to the one we have recently developed for Wannier excitons., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

We study the effect of thermal fluctuations on homogeneous infinite Bose-Einstein condensate with spin F=2 in the cyclic state, when atoms occupy three hyperfine states with $m_{F}=0, \pm 2$. We use both the approach of small-amplitude oscillations and mapping of our model on the sine-Gordon model. We show that thermal fluctuations lead to the existence of the rough phase in one- and two-dimensional systems, when presence of kinks is favorable. The structure and energy of a single kink are found. We also discuss the effect of thermal fluctuations on spin degrees of freedom in F=1 condensate., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

We consider the effect of thermal fluctuations on rotating spinor F=1 condensates in axially-symmetric vortex phases, when all the three hyperfine states are populated. We show that the relative phase among different components of the order parameter can fluctuate strongly due to the weakness of the interaction in the spin channel. These fluctuations can be significant even at low temperatures. Fluctuations of relative phase lead to significant fluctuations of the local transverse magnetization of the condensate. We demonstrate that these fluctuations are much more pronounced for the antiferromagnetic state than for the ferromagnetic one., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

We study the thermal fluctuations of vortex positions in small vortex clusters in a harmonically trapped rotating Bose-Einstein condensate. It is shown that the order-disorder transition of two-shells clusters occurs via the decoupling of shells with respect to each other. The corresponding "melting" temperature depends stronly on the commensurability between numbers of vortices in shells. We show that "melting" can be achieved at experimentally attainable parameters and very low temperatures. Also studied is the effect of thermal fluctuations on vortices in an anisotropic trap with small quadrupole deformation. We show that thermal fluctuations lead to the decoupling of a vortex cluster from the pinning potential produced by this deformation. The decoupling temperatures are estimated and strong commensurability effects are revealed., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; final version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

We study the process of vortex nucleation in rotating two-dimensional BEC confined in a harmonic trap. We show that, within the Gross-Pitaevskii theory with the boundary condition of vanishing of the order parameter at infinity, topological defects nucleation occurs via the creation of vortex-antivortex pairs far from the cloud center, where the modulus of the order parameter is small. Then, vortices move towards the center of the cloud and antivortices move in the opposite direction but never disappear. We also discuss the role of surface modes in this process., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Extended Gross-Pitaevskii equations for the rotating F=2 condensate in a harmonic trap are solved both numerically and variationally using trial functions for each component of the wave function. Axially-symmetric vortex solutions are analyzed and energies of polar and cyclic states are calculated. The equilibrium transitions between different phases with changing of the magnetization are studied. We show that at high magnetization the ground state of the system is determined by interaction in "density" channel, and at low magnetization spin interactions play a dominant role. Although there are five hyperfine states, all the particles are always condensed in one, two or three states. Two novel types of vortex structures are also discussed., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

We have designed and investigated a contactless magnetic phase shifter for flux-based superconducting qubits. The phase shifter is realized by placing a perpendicularly magnetized dot at the centre of a superconducting loop. The flux generated by this magnetic dot gives rise to an additional shielding current in the loop, which, in turn, induces a phase shift. By modifying the parameters of the dot an arbitrary phase shift can be generated in the loop. This magnetic phase shifter can, therefore, be used as an external current source in superconducting circuits, as well as a suitable tool to study fractional Josephson vortices., Comment: to be published in Physical Review Letters