Comment on "Quantum Phase Slips and Transport in Ultrathin Superconducting Wires"
arXiv:cond-mat/9702231 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.3316
Abstract
In a recent Letter (Phys. Rev. Lett.78, 1552 (1997) ), Zaikin, Golubev, van Otterlo, and Zimanyi criticized the phenomenological time-dependent Ginzburg-Laudau model which I used to study the quantum phase-slippage rate for superconducting wires. They claimed that they developed a "microscopic" model, made qualitative improvement on my overestimate of the tunnelling barrier due to electromagnetic field. In this comment, I want to point out that, i), ZGVZ's result on EM barrier is expected in my paper; ii), their work is also phenomenological; iii), their renormalization scheme is fundamentally flawed; iv), they underestimated the barrier for ultrathin wires; v), their comparison with experiments is incorrect.
Substantial changes made. Zaikin et al's main result was expected from my work. They underestimated tunneling barrier for ultrathin wires by one order of magnitude in the exponent