Boundary Field theory Approach to Superconducting Quantum Circuits

Speaker: P. Sodano, University of Perugia, Italy

When: February 16, 2007 (Fri), 12:00PM to 01:00PM (add to my calendar)
Location: SCI 352

This event is part of the Biophysics/Condensed Matter Seminar Series.

It will be shown that the quantum properties of some Josephson devices may be described by a boundary sine Gordon model. First, I will analyse the regimes accessible to an rf-SQUID and to a two-Josephson junction SQUID device (the dc-SQUID). Then, I will compute the current-response of these circuits to an externally applied voltage showing that the equation describing the current-voltage characteristic reduces to well-known results when the infrared cut-off is suitably chosen. Our approach helps in establishing new and interesting connections between superconducting devices, quantum Brownian motion, fermionic quantum wires and, more generally, quantum impurity problems.