Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Decoherence in Superconductors

Abstract

We show that superconductors have a thin spectrum associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking similar to that of antiferromagnets, while still being in full agreement with Elitzur's theorem, which forbids the spontaneous breaking of local (gauge) symmetries. This thin spectrum in the superconductors consists of in-gap states that are associated with the spontaneous breaking of a global phase symmetry. In qubits based on mesoscopic superconducting devices, the presence of the thin spectrum implies a maximum coherence time which is proportional to the number of Cooper pairs in the device. Here we present the detailed calculations leading up to these results and discuss the relation between spontaneous symmetry breaking in superconductors and the Meissner effect, the Anderson-Higgs mechanism and the Josephson effect. Whereas for the Meissner effect a symmetry breaking of the phase of the superconductor is not required, it is essential for the Josephson effect.

11 pages, 4 figures; corrected typos

References in corpus (9)

• Superconductors are topologically ordered
• Dispersive measurements of superconducting qubit coherence with a fast, latching readout
• An intrinsic limit to quantum coherence due to spontaneous symmetry breaking
• Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Mechanics
• On the relation between decoherence and spontaneous symmetry breaking
• Is electromagnetic gauge invariance spontaneously violated in superconductors?
• Evolution of a quantum spin system to its ground state: Role of entanglement and interaction symmetry
• Entanglement and transport through correlated quantum dot
• Limit to manipulation of qubits due to spontaneous symmetry breaking

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Basics of Bose-Einstein Condensation
• Chiral Mott Insulators, Meissner Effect, and Laughlin States in Quantum Ladders
• Bogoliubov's Vision: Quasiaverages and Broken Symmetry to Quantum Protectorate and Emergence
• Quantum Dynamics in the Thermodynamic Limit
• The Higgs phase as a spin glass, and the transition between varieties of confinement
• Broken Time Translation Symmetry as a model for Quantum State Reduction
• The nature of symmetry breaking in the superconducting ground state
• Fermionic criticality is shaped by Fermi surface topology: a case study of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid
• Origin of Topological Order in a Cooper Pair Insulator
• Thin Spectrum States in Superconductors
• Phase transitions as a manifestation of spontaneous unitarity violation
• Defect Formation Preempts Dynamical Symmetry Breaking in Closed Quantum Systems
• Cuprates and center vortices: A QCD confinement mechanism in a high-Tc context
• Quantum collapses and revivals of a matter wave in the dynamics of symmetry breaking