Photon-Instanton Collider Implemented by a Superconducting Circuit

Abstract

Instantons, spacetime-localized quantum field tunneling events, are ubiquitous in correlated condensed matter and high energy systems. However, their direct observation through collisions with conventional particles has not been considered possible. We show how recent advance in circuit quantum electrodynamics, specifically, the realization of galvanic coupling of a transmon qubit to a highimpedance transmission line, allows the observation of inelastic collisions of single microwave photons with instantons (phase slips). We develop the formalism for calculating the photon-instanton cross section, which should be useful in other quantum field theoretical contexts. In particular, we show that the inelastic scattering probability can significantly exceed the effect of conventional Josephson quartic anharmonicity, and reach order unity values.

Absence versus Presence of Dissipative Quantum Phase Transition in Josephson Junctions

“…Our analyses should have a broad range of applications to those systems which are currently the subject of intense research in different fields. Moreover, in view of the fundamental role of JJ in quantum circuits [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47], the present study will also advance our understanding of the interaction between quantum information processors and electromagnetic environments in general.…”

Shocks and solitary waves in series connected discrete Josephson transmission lines

“…The "potential energy" (28). We have chosen one of ϕ1, ϕ2 to be equal to .5 and the other -equal to 1.0…”

“…The "potential energy" (28), which is graphically presented on Fig. 7, is symmetric with respect to interchange of ϕ 1 and ϕ 2 .…”

“…Transmission lines formed by JJs connected in series were studied beginning from 1990s, though much less than transmission lines formed by JJs connected in parallel 20 . However, the former began to attract quite a lot of attention recently [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] , especially in connection with possible JTL traveling wave parametric amplification [29][30][31] .…”

The kinks, the solitons and the shocks in series connected discrete Josephson transmission lines

“…Transmission lines formed by JJ connected in series were studied beginning from 1990s, though much less than transmission lines formed by JJ connected in parallel 20 . However, the former began to attract quite a lot of attention recently [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] , especially in connection with possible JTL traveling wave parametric amplification [29][30][31] .…”