Related papers: New Experiments for Spontaneous Vortex Formation i…
It has been argued by Zurek and Kibble that the likelihood of producing defects in a continuous phase transition depends in a characteristic way on the quench rate. In this paper we discuss our experiment for measuring the Zurek-Kibble…
It has been argued by Zurek and Kibble that the likelihood of producing defects in a continuous phase transition depends in a characteristic way on the quench rate. In this paper we discuss our experiment for measuring the Zurek-Kibble…
Phase transitions executed in a finite time show a domain structure with defects, that has been argued by Zurek and Kibble to depend in a characteristic way on the quench rate. In this letter we present an experiment to measure the…
New scaling behavior has been both predicted and observed in the spontaneous production of fluxons in quenched $Nb-Al/Al_{ox}/Nb$ annular Josephson tunnel junctions as a function of the quench time, $\tau_{Q}$. The probability $f_{1}$ to…
We report on the spontaneous production of fluxons in the presence of a symmetry-breaking magnetic field for annular Josephson tunnel junctions during a thermal quench. The dependence on field intensity $B$ of the probability $\bar{f_1}$ to…
Zurek has provided simple causal bounds for the onset of phase transitions in condensed matter, that mirror those proposed by Kibble for relativistic quantum field theory. In this paper we show how earlier experiments with annular Josephson…
In parallel with Kibble's description of the onset of phase transitions in the early universe, Zurek has provided a simple picture for the onset of phase transitions in condensed matter systems, strongly supported by agreement with…
Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined to a dual-ring trap support Josephson vortices as topologically stable defects in the relative phase. We propose a test of the scaling laws for defect formation by quenching a Bose gas to degeneracy…
We report on the first experimental verification of the Zurek-Kibble scenario in an isolated superconducting ring over a wide parameter range. The probability of creating a single flux quantum spontaneously during the fast…
Half a century ago, T. Kibble proposed a scenario for topological defect formation from symmetry breaking during the expansion of the early Universe. W. Zurek later crystallized the concept to superfluid helium, predicting a power-law…
Consistent with the predictions of Kibble and Zurek, scaling behaviour has been seen in the production of fluxoids during temperature quenches of superconducting rings. However, deviations from the canonical behaviour arise because of…
If systems change as fast as possible as they pass through a phase transition then the initial domain structure is constrained by causality. We shall show how we can trace these causal horizons by measuring the spontaneous production of…
The dynamic response of unfrustrated two-dimensional Josephson junction arrays close to, but above the Kosterlitz-Thouless($KT$) transition temperature is described in terms of the vortex dielectric function $\epsilon(\omega)$. The latter…
We study motion of vortices in arrays of Josephson junctions at zero temperature where it is controlled by quantum tunneling from one plaquette to another. The tunneling process is characterized by a finite time and can be slow compared to…
In order to mimic the phase changes in the primordial Big Bang, several "cosmological" solid-state experiments have been conceived, during the last decade, to investigate the spontaneous symmetry breaking in superconductors and superfluids…
Fluctuations of the current through a tunnel junction are measured using a Josephson junction. The current noise adds to the bias current of the Josephson junction and affects its switching out of the supercurrent branch. The experiment is…
Confocal Annular Josephson Tunnel Junctions (CAJTJs) which are the natural generalization of the circular annular Josephson tunnel junctions, have a rich nonlinear phenomenology due to the intrinsic non-uniformity of their planar tunnel…
We report theoretical and experimental work on the development of a Josephson vortex qubit based on a confocal annular Josephson tunnel junction (CAJTJ). The key ingredient of this geometrical configuration is a periodically variable width…
Symmetry breaking phase transitions from less to more ordered phases will typically produce topological defects in the ordered phase. Kibble-Zurek theory predicts that for any second-order phase transition, such as the early universe, the…
We propose a theory to explain the experimental observed deviation from the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) scaling in rapidly quenched critical phase transition dynamics. There is a critical quench rate $\tau_{Q}^{c1}$ above it the KZM…