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We study the three terminal S-QD-S-QD-S Josephson junction biased with commensurate voltages. In the absence of an applied voltage, the Andreev bound states on each quantum dot hybridize forming an `Andreev molecule'. However, understanding of this system in a non-equilibrium setup is lacking. Applying a dc voltage on the bijunction makes the system time-periodic, and the equilibrium Andreev bound states evolve into a ladder of resonances with a finite lifetime due to multiple Andreev reflections (MAR). Starting from the time-periodic Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations we map the problem to a tight-binding chain in the (infinite) Floquet space. The resolvent of this non-Hermitian block matrix is obtained via a continued fraction method. We numerically calculate the Floquet-Andreev spectra which could be probed by local tunneling spectroscopy on the dots. We also consider the subgap current, and show that the Floquet resonances determine the position of the MAR steps. Proximity of the two dots causes splitting of the steps, while at large distances we observe interference effects which cause oscillations in the I-V curves. The latter effect should persist at very long distances.

We construct a semiholographic effective theory in which the electron of a two-dimensional band hybridizes with a fermionic operator of a critical holographic sector, while also interacting with other bands that preserve quasiparticle characteristics. Besides the scaling dimension $\nu$ of the fermionic operator in the holographic sector, the effective theory has two {dimensionless} couplings $\alpha$ and $\gamma$ determining the holographic and Fermi-liquid-type contributions to the self-energy respectively. We find that irrespective of the choice of the holographic critical sector, there exists a ratio of the effective couplings for which we obtain linear-in-$T$ resistivity for a wide range of temperatures. This scaling persists to arbitrarily low temperatures when $\nu$ approaches unity in which limit we obtain a marginal Fermi liquid with a specific temperature dependence of the self-energy., Comment: Derivation of Green's function is included in the appendix. Minor revision in the main text

In this paper, we consider a quantum dot connected to four superconducting terminals biased at opposite voltages on the quartet line. The grounded superconductor contains a loop threaded by the magnetic flux $\Phi$. We provide Keldysh microscopic calculations and physical pictures for the voltage-$V$ dependence of the quartet current. Superconductivity is expected to be stronger at $\Phi/\Phi_0=0$ than at $\Phi/\Phi_0=1/2$. However, inversion $I_{q,c}(V,0), Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, Supplemental Material as ancillary file (7 pages, 4 figures). Improved presentation

International audience; We study the neutral excitations of fractional quantum Hall states in electronic systems of finite width where an external anisotropy is introduced by tilting the magnetic field. As in the isotropic case, the neutral collective excitation can be worked out through the conserving method of composite fermions in the Hamiltonian theory because the interaction potential has a natural cutoff due to the quantum well width. We show how such a computation can be carried out perturbatively for an anisotropic interaction. We find that unlike the charge gap, the neutral collective gap is much more sensitive to the tilt and can thus, for certain fractional quantum Hall states, be easily destroyed by the parallel component of the magnetic field. We also discuss the convergence of the collective spectrum to the activation gap in the large-momentum limit.

We propose a novel platform for the study of quantum phase transitions in one dimension (1D QPT). The system consists of a specially designed chain of asymmetric SQUIDs; each SQUID contains several Josephson junctions with one junction shared between the nearest-neighbor SQUIDs.We develop the theoretical description of the low energy part of the spectrum. In particular, we show that the system exhibits the quantum phase transition of Ising type. In the vicinity of the transition the low energy excitations of the system can be described by Majorana fermions. This allow us to compute the matrix elements of the physical perturbations in the low energy sector. In the microwave experiments with this system, we explored the phase boundaries between the ordered and disordered phases and the critical behavior of the system's low-energy modes close to the transition. Due to the flexible chain design and control of the parameters of individual Josephson junctions, future experiments will be able to address the effects of non-integrability and disorder on the 1D QPT., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

We report on the study of the non-trivial Berry phase in superconducting multiterminal quantum dots biased at commensurate voltages. Starting with the time-periodic Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, we obtain a tight binding model in the Floquet space, and we solve these equations in the semiclassical limit. We observe that the parameter space defined by the contact transparencies and quartet phase splits into two components with a non-trivial Berry phase. We use the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization to calculate the Berry phase. We find that if the quantum dot level sits at zero energy, then the Berry phase takes the values $\varphi_B=0$ or $\varphi_B=\pi$. We demonstrate that this non-trivial Berry phase can be observed by tunneling spectroscopy in the Floquet spectra. Consequently, the Floquet-Wannier-Stark ladder spectra of superconducting multiterminal quantum dots are shifted by half-a-period if $\varphi_B=\pi$. Our numerical calculations based on Keldysh Green's functions show that this Berry phase spectral shift can be observed from the quantum dot tunneling density of states., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. Supplemental Material as ancillary file (3 pages, 5 figures), manuscript in final form

Here we present a theoretical investigation of the Floquet spectrum in multiterminal quantum dot Josephson junctions biased with commensurate voltages. We first draw an analogy between the electronic band theory and superconductivity which enlightens the time-periodic dynamics of the Andreev bound states. We then show that the equivalent of the Wannier-Stark ladders observed in semiconducting superlattices via photocurrent measurements, appears as specific peaks in the finite frequency current fluctuations of superconducting multiterminal quantum dots. In order to probe the Floquet-Wannier-Stark ladder spectra, we have developed an analytical model relying on the sharpness of the resonances. The charge-charge correlation function is obtained as a factorized form of the Floquet wave-function on the dot and the superconducting reservoir populations. We confirm these findings by Keldysh Green's function calculations, in particular regarding the voltage and frequency dependence of the resonance peaks in the current-current correlations. Our results open up a road-map to quantum correlations and coherence in the Floquet dynamics of superconducting devices., 13 pages, 7 figures, Supplemental Material as ancillary file (7 pages), revised manuscript, Physical Review Editors' suggestion

We study the role of zero-point quantum fluctuations in a range of magnetic states which on the classical level are close to spin-aligned ferromagnets. These include Skyrmion textures characterized by non-zero topological charge, and topologically-trivial spirals arising from the competition of the Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. For the former, we extend our previous results on quantum exactness of classical Bogomolny-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) ground-state degeneracies to the general case of K\"ahler manifolds, with a specific example of Grassmann manifolds $\mathrm{Gr(M,N)}$. These are relevant to quantum Hall ferromagnets with $\mathrm{N}$ internal states and integer filling factor $\mathrm{M}$. A promising candidate for their experimental implementation is monolayer graphene with $\mathrm{N=4}$ corresponding to spin and valley degrees of freedom at the charge neutrality point with $\mathrm{M=2}$ filled Landau levels. We find that the vanishing of the zero-point fluctuations in taking the continuum limit occurs differently in the case of BPS states compared to the case of more general smooth textures, with the latter exhibiting more pronounced lattice effects. This motivates us to consider the vanishing of zero-point fluctuations in such near-ferromagnets more generally. We present a family of lattice spin models for which the vanishing of zero-point fluctuations is evident, and show that some spirals can be thought of as having nonzero but weak zero-point fluctuations on account of their closeness to this family. Between them, these instances provide concrete illustrations of how the Casimir energy, dependent on the full UV-structure of the theory, evolves as the continuum limit is taken., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

We propose a semi-classical description of the low-energy properties of quantum spin ice in the strong Ising limit. Within the framework of a semiclassical, perturbative Villain expansion, that can be truncated at arbitrary order, we give an analytic and quantitative treatment of the deconfining phase. We find that photon-photon interactions significantly renormalise the speed of light and split the two transverse photon polarisations at intermediate wavevectors. We calculate the photon velocity and the ground state energy to first and second order in perturbation theory, respectively. The former is in good agreement with recent numerical simulations., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

Irradiating a Josephson junction with microwaves can operate not only on the amplitude but also on the phase of the Josephson current. This requires breaking time inversion symmetry, which is achieved by introducing a phase lapse between the microwave components acting on the two{\dag} sides of the junction. General symmetry arguments and the solution of a specific single level quantum dot model show that this induces chirality in the Cooper pair dynamics, due to the topology of the Andreev bound state wavefunction. Another essential condition is to break electron-hole symmetry within the junction. A shift of the current-phase relation is obtained, which is controllable in sign and amplitude with the microwave phase and an electrostatic gate, thus producing a "chiral" Josephson transistor. The dot model is solved in the infinite gap limit by Floquet theory and in the general case with Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's functions. The chiral current is nonadiabatic: it is extremal and changes sign close to resonant chiral transitions between the Andreev bound states., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, extended version

International audience; We use the Hamiltonian theory developed by Shankar and Murthy to study a quantum Hall system in a tilted magnetic field. With a finite width of the system in the z direction, the parallel component of the magnetic field introduces anisotropy into the effective two-dimensional interactions. The effects of such anisotropy can be effectively captured by the recently proposed generalized pseudopotentials. We find that the off-diagonal components of the pseudopotentials lead to mixing of composite fermions Landau levels, which is a perturbation to the picture of p filled Landau levels in composite-fermion theory. By changing the internal geometry of the composite fermions, such a perturbation can be minimized and one can find the corresponding activation gaps for different tilting angles, and we calculate the associated optimal metric. Our results show that the activation gap is remarkably robust against the in-plane magnetic field in the lowest and first Landau levels.

We study the symplectic geometry of the Jaynes–Cummings–Gaudin model with n = 2 m − 1 spins. We show that there are focus–focus singularities of maximal Williamson type ( 0 , 0 , m ) . We construct the linearized normal flows in the vicinity of such a point and show that soliton type solutions extend them globally on the critical torus. This allows us to compute the leading term in the Taylor expansion of the symplectic invariants and the monodromy associated to this singularity.

Circuit QED techniques have been instrumental to manipulate and probe with exquisite sensitivity the quantum state of superconducting quantum bits coupled to microwave cavities. Recently, it has become possible to fabricate new devices where the superconducting quantum bits are replaced by hybrid mesoscopic circuits combining nanoconductors and metallic reservoirs. This mesoscopic QED provides a new experimental playground to study the light-matter interaction in electronic circuits. Here, we present the experimental state of the art of Mesoscopic QED and its theoretical description. A first class of experiments focuses on the artificial atom limit, where some quasiparticles are trapped in nanocircuit bound states. In this limit, the Circuit QED techniques can be used to manipulate and probe electronic degrees of freedom such as confined charges, spins, or Andreev pairs. A second class of experiments consists in using cavity photons to reveal the dynamics of electron tunneling between a nanoconductor and fermionic reservoirs. For instance, the Kondo effect, the charge relaxation caused by grounded metallic contacts, and the photo-emission caused by voltage-biased reservoirs have been studied. The tunnel coupling between nanoconductors and fermionic reservoirs also enable one to obtain split Cooper pairs, or Majorana bound states. Cavity photons represent a qualitatively new tool to study these exotic condensed matter states., 34 pages, 18 figures, 1 table, minor differences with the published version to appear in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter as a topical review

The subject of these lecture notes combines several different manifestations of topology in a condensed matter system. The most classical of these is through the notion of texture. By this is meant any non-singular and topologically non-trivial spatial configuration of some relevant order parameter. The goal of these notes is to provide a theory-oriented introduction to the physics of textures in quantum Hall ferromagnets. They do not attempt to provide a comprehensive review of this very rich subject, and many important aspects are not mentioned, but instead they focus on recent advances in this field.

No experiment could directly test the particle/antiparticle duality of Majorana fermions, so far. However, this property represents a necessary ingredient towards the realization of topological quantum computing schemes. Here, we show how to complete this task by using microwave techniques. The direct coupling between a pair of overlapping Majorana bound states and the electric field from a microwave cavity is extremely difficult to detect due to the self-adjoint character of Majorana fermions which forbids direct energy exchanges with the cavity. We show theoretically how this problem can be circumvented by using photo-assisted tunneling to fermionic reservoirs. The absence of direct microwave transition inside the Majorana pair in spite of the light-Majorana coupling would represent a smoking gun for the Majorana self-adjoint character., 6 pages, 4 figures

Semi-holographic models of non-Fermi liquids have been shown to have generically stable generalised quasi-particles on the Fermi surface. Although these excitations are broad and exhibit particle-hole asymmetry, they were argued to be stable from interactions at the Fermi surface. In this work, we use this observation to compute the density response and collective behaviour in these systems. Compared to the Fermi liquid case, we find that the boundaries of the particle-hole continuum are blurred by incoherent contributions. However, there is a region inside this continuum, that we call inner core, within which salient features of the Fermi liquid case are preserved. A particularly striking prediction of our work is that these systems support a plasmonic collective excitation which is well-defined at large momenta, has an approximately linear dispersion relation and is located in the low-energy tail of the particle-hole continuum. Furthermore, the dynamic screening potential shows deep attractive regions as a function of the distance at higher frequencies which might lead to long-lived pair formation depending on the behaviour of the pair susceptibility. We also find that Friedel oscillations are present in these systems but are highly suppressed., 45 pages; 24 figures; published version

A three-terminal Josephson junction consists of three superconductors coupled coherently to a small nonsuperconducting island, such as a diffusive metal, a single or double quantum dot. A specific resonant single quantum dot three-terminal Josephson junction $(S_a,S_b,S_c)$ biased with voltages $(V,-V,0)$ is considered, but the conclusions hold more generally for resonant semi-conducting quantum wire set-ups. A simple physical picture of the steady state is developed, using Floquet theory. It is shown that the equilibrium Andreev bound states (for $V=0$) evolve into nonequilibrium Floquet-Wannier-Stark-Andreev (FWS-Andreev) ladders of resonances (for $V\ne 0$). These resonances acquire a finite width due to multiple Andreev reflection (MAR) processes. We also consider the effect of an extrinsic line-width broadening on the quantum dot, introduced through a Dynes phenomenological parameter. The DC-quartet current manifests a cross-over between the extrinsic relaxation dominated regime at low voltage to an intrinsic relaxation due to MAR processes at higher voltage. Finally, we study the coupling between the two FWS-Andreev ladders due to Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg transitions, and its effect on the cross-over in the relaxation mechanism. Three important low-energy scales are identified, and a perspective is to relate those low-energy scales to a recent noise cross-correlation experiment [Y. Cohen {\it et al.}, arXiv:1606.08436]., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, Supplemental Material as ancillary file (23 pages), minor modifications in presentation, Phys. Rev. B in press

We identify a large family of ground states of a topological Skyrmion magnet whose classical degeneracy persists to all orders in a semiclassical expansion. This goes along with an exceptional robustness of the concomitant ground state configurations, which are not at all dressed by quantum fluctuations. We trace these twin observations back to a common root: this class of topological ground states saturates a Bogomolny inequality. A similar phenomenology occurs in high-energy physics for some field theories exhibiting supersymmetry. We propose quantum Hall ferromagnets, where these Skyrmions configurations arise naturally as ground states away from integer filling, as the best available laboratory realisations., 9.5 pages

In a transparent three-terminal Josephson junction, modeling nonequilibrium transport is numerically challenging, owing to the interplay between multiple Andreev reflection (MAR) thresholds and multipair resonances in the pair current. An approximate method, coined as "partially resummed perturbation theory in the number of nonlocal Green's functions", is presented that can be operational on a standard computer and demonstrates compatibility with results existing in the literature. In a linear structure made of two neighboring interfaces (with intermediate transparency) connected by a central superconductor, tunneling through each of the interfaces separately is taken into account to all orders. On the contrary, nonlocal processes connecting the two interfaces are accounted for at the lowest relevant order. This yields logarithmically divergent contributions at the gap edges, which are sufficient as a semi-quantitative description. The method is able to describe the current in the full two-dimensional voltage range, including commensurate as well as incommensurate values. The results found for the multipair (for instance quartet) current-phase characteristics as well as the MAR thresholds are compatible with previous results. At intermediate transparency, the multipair critical current is much larger than the background MAR current, which supports an experimental observation of the quartet and multipair resonances. The paper provides a proof of principle for addressing in the future the interplay between quasiparticles and multipairs in four-terminal structures., 18 pages, 10 figures, improvements in the presentation, Eur. Phys. J. B in press

We review the various theoretical arguments which strongly suggest that integer quantization of the Hall conductance holds exactly for a non-relativistic two-dimensional electron system in the presence of a static disorder and electron–electron interactions, when the chemical potential lies in a mobility gap of the system. The semi-classical picture, the Laughlin gauge-invariance argument and the connection between the Kubo Hall conductance and Chern numbers are presented, and the relevance of these idealized geometries to real systems is discussed.

Understanding the interaction between cavity photons and electronic nanocircuits is crucial for the development of Mesoscopic Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). One has to combine ingredients from atomic Cavity QED, like orbital degrees of freedom, with tunneling physics and strong cavity field inhomogeneities, specific to superconducting circuit QED. It is therefore necessary to introduce a formalism which bridges between these two domains. We develop a general method based on a photonic pseudo-potential to describe the electric coupling between electrons in a nanocircuit and cavity photons. In this picture, photons can induce simultaneously orbital energy shifts, tunneling, and local orbital transitions. We study in details the elementary example of a single quantum dot with a single normal metal reservoir, coupled to a cavity. Photon-induced tunneling terms lead to a non-universal relation between the cavity frequency pull and the damping pull. Our formalism can also be applied to multi quantum dot circuits, molecular circuits, quantum point contacts, metallic tunnel junctions, and superconducting nanostructures enclosing Andreev bound states or Majorana bound states, for instance., 17 pages, 5 figures

The equilibrium current-phase structure of a tri-terminal superconducting Josephson junction (bijunction) is analyzed as a function of the two relevant phases. The bijunction is made of two noninteracting quantum dots, each one carrying a single level. Nonlocal processes coupling the three terminals are described in terms of quartet tunneling and pair cotunneling. These couplings are due to nonlocal Andreev and cotunneling processes through the central superconductor $S_0$, as well as direct interdot coupling. In some cases, two degenerate midgap Andreev states appear, symmetric with respect to the ($\pi,\pi$) point. The lifting of this degeneracy by interdot couplings induces a strong non-local inductance at low enough temperatures. This effect is compared to the mutual inductance of a two-loop circuit., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

We review recent results on a new class of Josephson arrays which have nontrivial topology and exhibit novel quantum states at low temperatures. One of these states is characterized by long-range order in a two-Cooper-pair condensate and by a discrete topological order parameter. The second state is insulating and can be considered as being the result of an evolution of the former state due to Bose-condensation of usual superconductive vortices with a flux quantum Φ0. The quantum phase transition between these two states is controlled by variation of the external magnetic field. Both the superconductive and insulating states are characterized by the presence of 2K-degenerate ground states, with K being the number of topologically different cycles existing in the plane of the array. This degeneracy is “protected” from the external perturbations (and noise) by the topological order parameter and spectral gap. We show that under ideal conditions the low-order effect of the external perturbations on this dege...

The weak coupling instabilities of a two dimensional Fermi system are investigated for the case of a square lattice using a Wilson renormalization group scheme to one loop order. We focus on a situation where the Fermi surface passes through two saddle points of the single particle dispersion. In the case of perfect nesting, the dominant instability is a spin density wave but d-wave superconductivity as well as charge or spin flux phases are also obtained in certain regions in the space of coupling parameters. The low energy regime in the vicinity of these instabilities can be studied analytically. Although saddle points play a major role (through their large contribution to the single particle density of states), the presence of low energy excitations along the Fermi surface rather than at isolated points is crucial and leads to an asymptotic decoupling of the various instabilities. This suggests a more mean-field like picture of these instabilities, than the one recently established by numerical studies using discretized Fermi surfaces., gzipped tar file, 31 pages including 10 figures, minor correction of misprints

International audience; We engineer topological insulating phases in a fermion-fermion mixture on the honeycomb lattice, without resorting to artificial gauge fields or spin-orbit couplings and considering only local interactions. Essentially, upon integrating out the fast component (characterized by a larger hopping amplitude) in a finite region of dopings, we obtain an effective interaction between the slow fermions at half-filling, which acquires a Haldane mass with opposite parity in the two valleys of the Dirac cones, thus triggering a quantum anomalous Hall effect. We carefully analyze the competition between the induced Semenoff-type mass (producing charge density wave orders in real space) versus the Haldane mass (quantum anomalous Hall phase), as a function of the chemical potential of the fast fermions. If the second species involves spin-1/2 particles, this interaction may induce a quantum spin Hall phase. Such fermion-fermion mixtures can be realized in optical lattices or in graphene heterostructures.

We propose an all-superconducting three-terminal setup consisting in a carbon nanotube (or semiconducting nanowire) contacted to three superconducting leads. The resulting device, referred to as a " biSQUID " , is made of four quantum dots arranged in two loops of different surface area. We show how this biSQUID can prove a useful tool to probe nonlocal quantum phenomena in an interferometry setup. We study the measured critical current as a function of the applied magnetic field, which shows peaks in its Fourier spectrum, providing clear signatures of multipair Josephson processes. The device does not require any specific fine-tuning as these features are observed for a wide range of microscopic parameters – albeit with a non-trivial dependence. Competing effects which may play a significant role in actual experimental realizations are also explored.

Bijunctions are three-terminal Josephson junctions where three superconductors are connected by a single weak link made of a metallic region or of quantum dots. Biasing two of the superconductors with commensurate voltages yields Andreev resonances that produce d.c. Josephson currents made of correlated Cooper pairs. For instance with applied voltages (0, V,-V), quartets formed by two entangled Cooper pairs are emitted by one reservoir towards the two others. Theory involving non-equilibrium Green's functions reveal the microsopic mechanism at play, e.g. multiple coherent Andreev reflections that provide an energy-conserving and fully coherent channel. Recent experiments on diffusive Aluminum-Copper bijunctions show transport anomalies that are interpreted in terms of quartet resonances., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of the Low Temperature Physics Conference LT27, Buenos Aires 2014

We present an extreme localization mechanism induced by a magnetic field for tight-binding electrons in two-dimensional structures. This spectacular phenomenon is investigated for a large class of tilings (periodic, quasiperiodic, or random). We are led to introduce the Aharonov-Bohm cages defined as the set of sites eventually visited by a wavepacket that can, for particular values of the magnetic flux, be bounded. We finally discuss the quantum dynamics which exhibits an original pulsating behaviour., 4 pages Latex, 3 eps figures, 1 ps figure

We derive a general set of Poor Man's scaling equations and analyze the stability of gapless states in two-dimensional nested systems of spinless fermions. The effect of processes with momentum transfer parallel to the Fermi surface in destroying massless states is investigated. It will be shown that massless states may be stable but that due to these processes the system is placed near instabilities. We argue that the massless states correspond to a hybrid liquid, in between a Fermi and a Luttinger liquid. A superconductive instability is also shown to exist for purely repulsive interactions.

We study the effect of an electric charge in the middle of a ring of electrons in a magnetic field such as {nu}=(1)/(2). In the absence of the central charge, a residual current should appear due to an Aharanov-Bohm effect. As the charge varies, periodic currents should appear in the ring. We evaluate the amplitude of these currents, as well as their period as the central charge varies. The presence of these currents should be a direct signature of the existence of a statistical gauge field in the {nu}=(1)/(2) quantum Hall effect. Numerical diagonalizations for a small number of electrons on the sphere are also carried out. Like the mean-field results, the numerical results up to nine electrons show a nontrivial reshuffling of the ground state as the electric charge is varied. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

We study quantum Hall ferromagnets with a finite density topologically charged spin textures in the presence of internal degrees of freedom such as spin, valley, or layer indices, so that the system is parametrised by a $d$-component complex spinor field. In the absence of anisotropies, we find formation of a hexagonal Skyrmion lattice which completely breaks the underlying SU(d) symmetry. The ground state charge density modulation, which inevitably exists in these lattices, vanishes exponentially in $d$. We compute analytically the complete low-lying excitation spectrum, which separates into $d^{2}-1$ gapless acoustic magnetic modes and a magnetophonon. We discuss the role of effective mass anisotropy for SU(3)-valley Skyrmions relevant for experiments with AlAs quantum wells. Here, we find a transition, which breaks a six-fold rotational symmetry of a triangular lattice, followed by a formation of a square lattice at large values of anisotropy strength., 4.5 pages, 3 figures

An all-superconducting bijunction consists of a central superconductor contacted to two lateral superconductors, such that non-local crossed Andreev reflection is operating. Then new correlated transport channels for the Cooper pairs appear in addition to those of separated conventional Joseph- son junctions. We study this system in a configuration where the superconductors are connected through gate-controllable quantum dots. Multipair phase-coherent resonances and phase-dependent multiple Andreev reflections are both obtained when the voltages of the lateral superconductors are commensurate, and they add to the usual local dissipative transport due to quasiparticles. The two-pair resonance (quartets) as well as some other higher order multipair resonances are {\pi}-shifted at low voltage. Dot control can be used to dramatically enhance the multipair current when the voltages are resonant with the dot levels., Comment: 6 pages

Coupling a semiconducting nanowire to a microwave cavity provides a powerfull means to assess the presence or absence of isolated Majorana fermions in the nanowire. These exotic bound states can cause a significant cavity frequency shift but also a strong cavity nonlinearity leading for instance to light squeezing. The dependence of these effects on the nanowire gate voltages gives direct signatures of the unique properties of Majorana fermions, such as their self-adjoint character and their exponential confinement., Comment: long version: 11 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the interplay between topological effects and Mott physics in two dimensions on a graphene-like lattice, via a tight-binding model containing an anisotropic spin-orbit coupling on the next-nearest-neighbour links and the Hubbard interaction. We thoroughly analyze the resulting phases, namely a topological band insulator phase or anisotropic quantum Spin Hall phase until moderate interactions, a N\'eel and Spiral phase at large interactions in the Mott regime, as well as the formation of a spin-orbital texture in the bulk at the Mott transition. The emergent magnetic orders at large interactions are analyzed through a spin wave analysis and mathematical arguments. At weak interactions, by analogy with the Kane-Mele model, the system is described through a Z_2 topological invariant. In addition, we describe how the anisotropic spin-orbit coupling already produces an exotic spin texture at the edges. The physics at the Mott transition is described in terms of a U(1) slave rotor theory. Taking into account gauge fluctuations around the mean-field saddle point solution, we show how the spin texture now proliferates into the bulk above the Mott critical point. The latter emerges from the response of the spinons under the insertion of monopoles and this becomes more pronounced as the spin-orbit coupling becomes prevalent. We discuss implications of our predictions for thin films of the iridate compound Na2IrO3 and also graphene-like systems., Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures, 1 table

We present a detailed study of the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic Ising model on a Cayley tree. In the limit of zero field, the system displays glassy behavior below a crossover temperature, $T_g$, that scales inversely with the logarithm of the number of generations; thus $T_g$ is inversely proportional to the logarithm of the logarithm of the number of sites. Non-Gaussian magnetization distributions are observed for $T < T_g$, reminiscent of that associated with the central spin of the Edwards-Anderson model on the same tree; furthermore a dynamical study indicates metastability, long relaxation times and ageing consistent with the development of glassy behavior for a finite but macroscopic number of sites., 32 pages, submitted to J. Phys A, figures available on request

The paper considers the effects of random fluctuations of the local spin connectivities (fluctuations of the geometry) on ground state properties of a two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet. We analyse the behavior of spins described by the Heisenberg model as a function of what we call phason flip disorder, following a terminology used for aperiodic systems. The calculations were carried out both within linear spin wave theory and using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. An "order by disorder" phenomenon is observed in this model, wherein antiferromagnetism is found to be enhanced by phason disorder. The value of the staggered order parameter increases with the number of defects, accompanied by an increase in the ground state energy of the system., 5 pages, 7 figures. Shortened and corrected version (as accepted for publication in Physical Review B)

International audience; A neutral quantum particle with magnetic moment encircling a static electric charge acquires a quantum mechanical phase (Aharonov-Casher effect). In superconducting electronics the neutral particle becomes a fluxon that moves around superconducting islands connected by Josephson junctions. The full understanding of this effect in systems of many junctions is crucial for the design of novel quantum circuits. Here we present measurements and quantitative analysis of fluxon interference patterns in a six Josephson junction chain. In this multi-junction circuit the fluxon can encircle any combination of charges on five superconducting islands, resulting in a complex pattern. We compare the experimental results with predictions of a simplified model that treats fluxons as independent excitations and with the results of the full diagonalization of the quantum problem. Our results demonstrate the accuracy of the fluxon interference description and the quantum coherence of these arrays.

We show that it is possible to initialize and manipulate in a deterministic manner protected qubits using time varying Hamiltonians. Taking advantage of the symmetries of the system, we predict the effect of the noise during the initialization and manipulation. These predictions are in good agreement with numerical simulations. Our study shows that the topological protection remains efficient under realistic experimental conditions., Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett

Three BCS superconductors S_a, S_b, and S and two short normal regions N_a and N_b in a three-terminal S_aN_aSN_bS_b set-up provide a source of non-local quartets spatially separated as two correlated pairs in S_a and S_b, if the distance between the interfaces N_aS and SN_b is comparable to the coherence length in S. Low-temperature dc-transport of non-local quartets from S to S_a and S_b can occur in equilibrium, and also if S_a and S_b are biased at opposite voltages. At higher temperatures, thermal excitations result in correlated current fluctuations which depend on the superconducting phases phi_a and phi_b in S_a and S_b. Phase-sensitive entanglement is obtained at zero temperature if N_a and N_b are replaced by discrete levels., 4 pages, 2 figures; technical details attached in ancillary file http://arxiv.org/src/1102.2355v4/anc/EPAPS_Freyn_2011.pdf; higher versions: minor corrections, cleanup and corrected references

We study the response of a two-dimensional ideal lattice as a random potential is smoothly turned on. The relaxation is controlled by non-linear instabilities, showing that the new ground state is not analytically connected to the ideal-lattice configuration. However, the long-range translational order decays only slowly in a way consistent with algebraic behaviour.

A two-dimensional array of weakly coupled antiferromagnetic spin chains is investigated using the Schwinger-boson technique. This method is known to give a good description of integer spins already at the mean-field level. We find that a finite coupling is necessary to introduce long-range antiferromagnetic order, consistently with the presence of a gap for a single chain. The energy gap and spin-spin correlations are calculated. These calculations correspond to the behavior of a nonlinear \ensuremath{\sigma} model without the one-dimensional topological term.

We investigate a one dimensional elastic system in a random potential. The response of the elastic medium to a set of sharp and dense pinning centers is shown to be controlled by non linear instabilities. We study the onset of these instabilities and their statistics. Both the distribution of energy discontinuities and the power spectrum of the pinning force are found to exhibit a power law behavior. The possible relevance of this model to some experiments on solid friction is briefly discussed

ABSTRACT: We review recent studies on the energetics of fermions confined to a two dimensional square lattice, and the relations of these results to mean-field approaches to the t−J model. Our goal has been to compute the kinetic energy of the Fermi sea of the spinless fermions for any value of the (1) fermion concentration, (2) magnetic flux, and (3) frustration. For the unfrustrated case, we confirm that the ground state energy, χ(Φ), is a minimum for Φ=π(1−δ), which corresponds to one flux quantum per spinless fermion. We then proceed to do a systematic study of frustration effects, coming from longer range couplings, which modify the picture obtained for the unfrustrated case. The frustrating influence of the kinetic energy of the holes (e.g., by breaking magnetic bonds and suppressing the long-range order present in the undoped systems) is the main focus of this work. We find that, in general, E(Φ) always exhibits cusp-like minima which position moves linearly as a function of the fermion density x. Frustration can induce a competition between different local minima. By first considering the local minima for one particle only, we can understand most of the qualitative features of E(Φ). These local minima occur at simple rational fractions of Φ0, and when the flux slightly deviates from these values a one-particle Landau level structure develops. It is precisely such a spectrum that generates a family of cusps that “move away” from the original flux value as x is increased. Every cusp corresponds to an integer number of filled Landau levels, and the minimum energy cusp corresponds to the one level case. Furthermore, we use perturbation theory, valid for low fermion density x, in order to analyze quantitatively the behavior of the cusp-like energy minima; which originate from the Landau level structure when the flux is close to a rational value. If the flux is slightly away from a given rational value [Formula: see text] each of the q subbands generates a secondary Landau level structure. We have derived a t2−t3 phase diagram indicating regions of similar behavior (i.e., adiabatic continuations can be performed with each region, preserving the E(Φ) structure) and the boundaries between them. We have studied several points belonging to those boundaries and found that anomalous behavior, (e.g., cancelation of the k2 term in the dispersion relation) induced by frustration, can occur.

Using a large-{ital N} slave-boson formulation of the {ital t}-{ital J} model on the square lattice that has explicit spinon-holon decoupling of the correlated electron, we study the stability and electromagnetic response of the commensurate flux phase in the limit near half filling. A region of stability for the flux phase is found located between a dimer phase region near half filling and a fluxless metallic phase region far from half filling. The commensurate flux phase itself is found to be a superconductor of the anyon type. Furthermore, it is shown that the parity--time-reversal--violating characteristic of this phase results in a frequency-dependent Faraday effect. This effect manifests itself as a zero-field Hall effect in the low-frequency limit, where the off-diagonal conductance scales with the hole concentration. Associated with this result, it is also found that the commensurate flux phase supports a series of optical absorption peaks at energies on the order of {ital J}. Lastly, inclusion of instanton tunneling events in the effective gauge-field action results in the confinement of the spinon and holon degrees of freedom. This confinement effect, however, weakens exponentially as one approaches the Mott transition. The present results are discussed in the context of the high-{italmore » T}{sub {ital c}} superconducting oxides.« less

In three spatial dimensions, particles are limited to either bosonic or fermionic statistics. Two-dimensional systems, on the other hand, can support anyonic quasiparticles exhibiting richer statistical behaviours. An exciting proposal for quantum computation is to employ anyonic statistics to manipulate information. Since such statistical evolutions depend only on topological characteristics, the resulting computation is intrinsically resilient to errors. So-called non-Abelian anyons are most promising for quantum computation, but their physical realization may prove to be complex. Abelian anyons, however, are easier to understand theoretically and realize experimentally. Here we show that complex topological memories inspired by non-Abelian anyons can be engineered in Abelian models. We explicitly demonstrate the control procedures for the encoding and manipulation of quantum information in specific lattice models that can be implemented in the laboratory. This bridges the gap between requirements for anyonic quantum computation and the potential of state-of-the-art technology., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Annals of Physics

It is shown how the dynamic response of lattice fermions in a magnetic field (the Wannier-Azbel-Hofstadter'' system) may be calculated. Details are given for electromagnetic perturbations {delta}{bold A}({bold r},{ital t}){similar to}{delta}{bold A}({bold Q},{omega})exp({ital i}{bold Q}{center dot}{bold r}{minus}{ital i}{omega}{ital t}). Linear-response theory is valid for periodic boundary conditions, and can be justified in general for rational filling. Analytic results are given for the various current-current responses. Applications are briefly discussed.

We have calculated the finite-frequency current noise of a superconductor-ferromagnet quantum point contact (SF QPC). This signal is qualitatively affected by the spin-dependence of interfacial phase shifts (SDIPS) acquired by electrons upon reflection on the QPC. For a weakly transparent QPC, noise steps appear at frequencies or voltages determined directly by the SDIPS. These steps can occur at experimentally accessible temperatures and frequencies. Finite frequency noise is thus a promising tool to characterize the scattering properties of a SF QPC., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

We discuss charged topological spin textures in quantum Hall ferromagnets in which the electrons carry a pseudospin as well as the usual spin degree of freedom, as is the case in bilayer GaAs or monolayer graphene samples. We develop a theory which treats spin and pseudospin on a manifestly equal footing, which may also be of help in visualizing the relevant spin textures. We in particular consider the entanglement of spin and pseudospin in the presence of realistic anisotropies. An entanglement operator is introduced which generates families of degenerate Skyrmions with differing entanglement properties. We propose a local characterization of the latter, and touch on the role entangled Skyrmions play in the nuclear relaxation time of quantum Hall ferromagnets., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; discussion of collective skyrmion modes added; version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B