Quantum Phase in Nanoscopic Superconductors

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

Suppression of superconductivity in high-TcT_c cuprates due to nonmagnetic impurities: Implications for the order parameter symmetry

We studied the effects of nonmagnetic impurities on high-temperature superconductors by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations on a two-dimensional lattice via exact diagonalization technique in a fully self-consistent way. We found that s-wave order parameter is almost unaffected by impurities at low concentrations while $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave order parameter exhibits a strong linear decrease with impurity concentration. We evaluated the critical impurity concentration $n_i^c$ at which superconductivity ceases to be 0.1 which is in good agreement with experimental values. We also investigated how the orthorhombic nature of the crystal structure affects the suppression of superconductivity and found that anisotropy induces an additional s-wave component. Our results support $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave symmetry for tetragonal and $s+d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave symmetry for orthorhombic structure.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 4 figures, uses grafik.sty (included

Entanglement of hard-core bose gas in degenerate levels under local noise

Quantum entanglement properties of the pseudo-spin representation of the BCS model is investigated. In case of degenerate energy levels, where wave functions take a particularly simple form, spontaneous breaking of exchange symmetry under local noise is studied. Even if the Hamiltonian has the same symmetry, it is shown that there is a non-zero probability to end up with a non-symmetric final state. For small systems, total probability for symmetry breaking is found to be inversely proportional to the system size

Energy spectrum for two-dimensional potentials in very high magnetic fields

A method, analogous to supersymmetry transformation in quantum mechanics, is developed for a particle in the lowest Landau level moving in an arbitrary potential. The method is applied to two-dimensional potentials formed by Dirac delta scattering centers. In the periodic case, the problem is solved exactly for rational values of the magnetic flux (in units of flux quantum) per unit cell. The spectrum is found to be self-similar, resembling the Hofstadter butterfly.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, REVTEX, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, Sep. 1

Quantum phase in nanoscopic superconductors

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

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

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

Two-dimensional quantum walk under artificial magnetic field

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