English

Generalized Josephson effect with arbitrary periodicity in quantum magnets

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2025-12-11 v2 Superconductivity Quantum Physics

Abstract

Easy-plane quantum magnets are strikingly similar to superconductors, allowing for spin supercurrent and an effective superconducting phase stemming from their U(1)U(1) rotation symmetry around the zz-axis. We uncover a generalized fractional Josephson effect with a periodicity that increases linearly with system size in one-dimensional spin-1/21/2 chains at selected anisotropies and phase-fixing boundary fields. The effect combines arbitrary integer periodicities in a single system, exceeding the 4π4\pi and 8π8\pi periodicity of superconducting Josephson effects of Majorana zero modes and other exotic quasiparticles. We reveal a universal energy-phase relation and connect the effect to the recently discovered phantom helices.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.04008,
  title  = {Generalized Josephson effect with arbitrary periodicity in quantum magnets},
  author = {Anshuman Tripathi and Felix Gerken and Peter Schmitteckert and Michael Thorwart and Mircea Trif and Thore Posske},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.04008},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

11 pages, 5 figures, 2 ancillary videos

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:06:55.959Z