English

Comment on "Absence versus Presence of Dissipative Quantum Phase Transition in Josephson Junctions''

Superconductivity 2025-02-10 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 087001, (2022)], Masuki, Sudo, Oshikawa, and Ashida studied a Josephson junction, with Josephson energy EJE_{\rm J} and charging energy ECE_{\rm C}, shunted by an ohmic transmission line with conductance α(2e)2/h\alpha (2e)^2/h. Their model includes a realistic high frequency cutoff of order αEc\alpha E_c, that is typically smaller than the plasma frequency WW. The authors present a phase diagram showing surprising features, not anticipated in the established literature [eg. Sch\"on and Zaikin, Phys. Reports 198, 237, (1990)]. For EJ/ECE_{\rm J}/E_{\rm C} above a certain value, they find that the junction remains superconducting for all α\alpha, while below this value, they find that the insulating phase leads to re-entrant superconductivity at small α\alpha. In this Comment, we show that their Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) implementation is uncontrolled, and that there is no evidence for the re-entrant superconductivity in the phase diagram presented in Fig. 1a of PRL 129, 087001.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.00742,
  title  = {Comment on "Absence versus Presence of Dissipative Quantum Phase Transition in Josephson Junctions''},
  author = {Théo Sépulcre and Serge Florens and Izak Snyman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.00742},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

3 pages. Text of the version accepted for publication, plus an appendix with additional information