English

Phase phonon spectrum and melting in a quantum rotor model with diagonal disorder

Superconductivity 2009-11-07 v2

Abstract

We study the zero-temperature (T=0T = 0) quantum rotor model with on-site disorder in the charging energy. Such a model may serve as an idealized Hamiltonian for an array of Josephson-coupled small superconducting grains, or superfluid 4^4He in a disordered environment. In the approximation of small-amplitude phase fluctuations, the Hamiltonian maps onto a system of coupled harmonic oscillators with on-site disorder. We study the effects of disorder in this harmonic regime, using the coherent potential approximation (CPA), obtaining the density of states and the lifetimes of the spin-wave-like excitations for several choices of the parameters which characterize the disorder. Finally, we estimate the parameters characterizing the T=0T = 0 quantum melting of the phase order, using a suitable Lindemann criterion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0211539,
  title  = {Phase phonon spectrum and melting in a quantum rotor model with diagonal disorder},
  author = {W. A. Al-Saidi and D. Stroud},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0211539},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. B. Minor changes