Search

The growing interest in quantum technologies, from fundamental physics experiments to quantum computing, demands for extremely performing electronics only adding the minimum amount of noise admitted by quantum mechanics to the input signal (i.e. quantum-limited electronics). Superconducting microwave amplifiers, due to their dissipationless nature, exhibit outstanding performances in terms of noise (quantum limited), and gain. However, bandwidth and saturation power still show space for substantial improvement. Within the DARTWARS* collaboration, we are developing state-of-the-art microwave superconducting amplifiers based on Josephson junction arrays and on distributed kinetic inductance transmission lines. Here we report the realization of a setup for the characterization of the performances of Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPA) at a temperature of 300 mK. Although in the final experimental setup these amplifiers will operate at a base temperature of about 20 mK, their characterization at 300 mK allows to evidence the main aspects of their performances, but the ultimate noise level. This represents a quick and relatively inexpensive way to test these superconductive devices that can be of help to improve their design and fabrication. IEEE

Improvements experienced by incumbent “old” technologies when threatened by new ones, potentially supplanting them, are often addressed as the “sailing-ship effect.” The latter phrase points to the eponymous case that consists of the 60-year or so technological battle between sail and steam in ships’ propulsion during the 19th century, which led to unexpected large advancements in sail technology. Paradoxically, until today, the only work which addressed quantitatively that technological battle actually found a lack of evidence of the occurrence of the sailing-ship effect. In this paper, through fresh statistical analysis, we find instead confirmation of the existence of the effect in the original case. This finding contributes to the theoretical debate that explains technological persistence through mechanisms such as path dependence, cumulativeness, localized technical progress, competence and cognitive traps, the presence of complementary assets and tributary innovations, as well as institutional features. Policy dimensions are considered in Section 7 of the work.

The recent developments in quantum technologies, as well as advanced detection experiments, have raised the need to detect extremely weak signals in the microwave frequency spectrum. To this aim, the Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, a device capable of reaching the quantum noise limit while providing a wide bandwidth, has been proposed as a suitable cryogenic front-end amplifier. This work deals with the numerical study of a Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, without approximations regarding the nonlinearity of the key elements. In particular, we focus on the investigation of the system of coupled nonlinear differential equations representing all the cells of the Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, with proper input and output signals at the boundaries. The investigation of the output signals generated by the parametric amplification process explores the phase-space and the Fourier spectral analysis of the output voltage, as a function of the parameters describing the pump and signal tones that excite the device. Beside the expected behavior, i.e., the signal amplification, we show that, depending on the system operation, unwanted effects (such as pump tone harmonics, incommensurate frequency generation, and noise rise), which are not accounted for in simple linearized approaches, can be generated in the whole nonlinear system. IEEE

Sleep/wake cycles were once dictated by the solar day, but now humans are subjected to prolonged exposure to artificial light, resulting in altered daily sleep patterns. We investigate a van der Pol-type mathematical model for a circadian model, which incorporates a daylight and noise model, to capture the consequences of artificial light, which has become part of our daily lives. The results show that when the cycle is interpreted as a model for the sleep/awake alternation, the duration and sleep offset are influenced by light intensity, daylight duration and noise intensity. Increasing light intensity and duration can lead to a decrease in sleep duration beyond ∼ 30 mins. Thus, the cycle of the circadian oscillations can be influenced by a sudden change in longitude (jet lag) is much more influenced by the daily duration of light than by its intensity. Noise could cause a loss of sleep of more than 10%; in other words, artificial light could cause a decrease of more than 40 mins in sleep time, which could cause a malfunction of the human mechanism. Furthermore, simulations show that the duration of sleep during the different seasons of the year reveals that it is in winter that sleep is longer in contrast to summer where the daily loss of sleep could be as much as 5% (∼ 20mins); nevertheless, the increase in noise intensity can decrease the duration of sleep in winter and make it shorter than in summer. The evolution of light over the year is slow enough for the oscillator to regulate sleep time, whereas a sudden change in latitude and the consequent change in daily light could cause major dysfunctions on sleep time and requires an adaptation time to be regulated; Indeed the adaptation to this change could take several cycles and depends on the environmental conditions, as it would be more difficult for the organism to regulate its sleep if moving from a point with long daylight to a position with shorter daylight than for a trip in the opposite direction. In brief, the mathematical van der Pol pacemaker model of the circadian rhythm driven by periodic and random terms, that mimic realistic illumination, provides quantitative information on alterations in the circadian sleep/wake pattern, in agreement with empirical observations.PACS numbers

The “sailing-ship effect” is the process whereby improvements to an incumbent technology (e.g. sail) are intentionally sought as a new competing technology (steam) emerges. Despite the fact that the effect has been referred to by quite a few scholars in different technological battles, the effect itself seems to have been taken for granted rather than organically defined and investigated. In this paper, within the context of evolutionary “appreciative theorizing” à la Nelson and Winter, through in-depth study of technological battles between old and new technologies, we transform what was an unfinished concept into a structured, fully-fledged, tool of analysis.

We discuss the resonant activation phenomenon on a Josephson junction due to the coupling of the Josephson system with axions. We show how such an effect can be exploited for axion detection. A nonmonotonic behavior, with a minimum, of the mean switching time from the superconducting to the resistive state versus the ratio of the axion energy and the Josephson plasma energy is found. We demonstrate how variations in switching times make it possible to detect the presence of the axion field. An experimental protocol for observing axions through their coupling with a Josephson system is proposed.

In this work, we apply a stochastic component to a previously proposed deterministic model which expounds the ‘sailing-ship effect’ – that is, the reaction of an existing technology to the appearance of a new, potentially better, technology. The evolution of the technical performance – e.g. data transmission capacity – is studied taking into account the noise engendered by the presence of a random variable that mimics the uncertainty of R&D productivity. Both a Gaussian and a Cauchy–Lorentz distribution are considered. Performances’ evolution is studied by running simulations of a nonlinear functional map which is capable of showing the sailing-ship effect in the two possible variants, i.e. either the old or the new technology prevails in terms of performance. A noteworthy counterintuitive result for the Gaussian case is that noise may actually be beneficial to performance improvement.

The Italian institute for nuclear physics (INFN) has financed the SIMP project (2019-2021) in order to strengthen its skills and technologies in the field of meV detectors with the ultimate aim of developing a single microwave photon detector. This goal will be pursued by improving the sensitivity and the dark count rate of two types of photodetectors: current biased Josephson Junction (JJ) for the frequency range 10-50 GHz and Transition Edge Sensor (TES) for the frequency range 30-100 GHz. Preliminary results on materials and devices characterization are presented., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

The present chapter investigates both the effects of moving loads and of stochastic wind on the steady-state vibration of a first mode Rayleigh elastic beam. The beam is assumed to lay on foundations (bearings) that are characterized by fractional-order viscoelastic material. The viscoelastic property of the foundation is modeled using the constitutive equation of Kelvin-Voigt type, which contain fractional derivatives of real order. Based to the stochastic averaging method, an analytical explanation on the effects of the viscoelastic physical properties and number of the bearings, additive and parametric wind turbulence on the beam oscillations is provided. In particular, it is found that as the number of bearings increase, the resonant amplitude of the beam decreases and shifts towards larger frequency values. The results also indicate that as the order of the fractional derivative increases, the amplitude response decreases. We are also demonstrated that a moderate increase of the additive and parametric wind turbulence contributes to decrease the chance for the beam to reach the resonance. The remarkable agreement between the analytical and numerical results is also presented in this chapter.

Detection of light dark matter, such as axion-like particles, puts stringent requirements on the efficiency and dark-count rates of microwave-photon detectors. The possibility of operating a current-biased Josephson junction as a single-microwave photon-detector was investigated through numerical simulations, and through an initial characterization of two Al junctions fabricated by shadow mask evaporation, done in a dilution refrigerator by measuring escape currents at different temperatures, from 40 mK up to the Al transition temperature. The escape dynamics of the junctions were reproduced in the simulation, including the dissipative effects. Inhibition of thermal activation was observed, leaving the macroscopic quantum tunneling as the dominant effect well beyond the crossover temperature.

A particular attention is devoted to analyze the effect of the foundation having fractional order viscoelastic material on a response of a beam structure. Periodic responses are computed using the stochastic averaging method, and the effects of fractional order damping on the vibration reduction of the beam are analyzed. The analysis shows that, as the order of the derivative increases, the resonant amplitude of the beam vibration decreases. It means that high order of the fractional derivative appear to be beneficial for the beam vibration control. It is also observed that the multivalued solution only appears for the smallest order and suddenly disappears as the derivative order increases. Further, the additive and parametric wind turbulence contributes to decrease the chance for the beam to reach the resonance of the amplitude oscillations. The analytical predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations.

We show that a multi-walled carbon nanotube film can be used as the sensing element of a low-cost sensor for the alcoholic concentration in liquid solutions. To this purpose, we investigate the electrical resistance of the film as a function of the isopropanol concentration in a water solution. The analysis reveals a growing resistance with increasing isopropanol concentration and a fast response. The sensing element is re-usable as the initial resistance value is restored once the solution has evaporated. The electrical resistance increases linearly when the multi-walled carbon nanotube film is exposed to common beverages with increasing alcoholic content. This work paves the way for the development of low-cost, miniaturized MWCNT-based sensors for quality monitoring and control of alcoholic beverages and general liquid solutions., Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures

This manuscript is on the design and development of a single microwave photon counter based on a current-biased Josephson junction aimed at the detection of light axion dark matter. Simulations and measurements of a Josephson junction are presented. We observe the junction in a quantum tunneling regime, with subsequent dissipation on an external RC circuit.

This work deals with the numerical analysis of the zero-voltage state lifetimes distribution of an underdamped Josephson junction used for the detection of single microwave photons in the presence of thermal noise. The analysis considers the switching probabilities of a JJ subjected to a train of current pulses, which simulates a weak photon field. To characterize the detection, we take advantage of a statistic tool, the Kumar-Carroll (KC) index, which is a good proxy of the signal-to-noise-ratio. It can be, therefore, exploited to identify the proper device fabrication parameters and the optimal operation point of the junction.

We propose a scheme for the detection of microwave induced photons through current-biased Josephson junction, from the point of view of the statistical decision theory. Our analysis is based on the numerical study of the zero voltage lifetime distribution in response to a periodic train of pulses, that mimics the absorption of photons. The statistical properties of the detection are retrieved comparing the thermally induced transitions with the distribution of the switchings to the finite voltage state due to the joint action of thermal noise and of the incident pulses. The capability to discriminate the photon arrival can be quantified through the Kumar-Caroll index, which is a good indicator of the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio. The index can be exploited to identify the system parameters best suited for the detection of weak microwave photons., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

The analysis of a birhythmic modified van der Pol type oscillator driven by periodic excitation and Levy noise shows the possible occurrence of coherence resonance and stochastic resonance. The frequency of the harmonic excitation in the neighborhood of one of the limit cycles influences the coherence of the dynamics on the time scale of the oscillations. The autocorrelation function, the power spectral density and the signal-to-noise-ratio used in this analysis are shown to be maximized for an appropriate choice of the noise intensity. In particular, a proper adjustment of the Levy noise intensity enhances the output power spectrum of the system, that is, promotes stochastic resonance. Thus, the resonance, as examined using standard measures, seems to occur also in the presence of nonstandard noise. The initial selection of the attractor seems to have an influence on the coherence, while the skewness parameter of the Levy noise has not a notable impact on the resonant effect.

We propose to characterize L\'evy-distributed stochastic fluctuations through the measurement of the average voltage drop across a current-biased Josephson junction. We show that the noise induced switching process in the Josephson washboard potential can be exploited to reveal and characterize L\'evy fluctuations, also if embedded in a thermal noisy background. The measurement of the average voltage drop as a function of the noise intensity allows to infer the value of the stability index that characterizes L\'evy-distributed fluctuations. An analytical estimate of the average velocity in the case of a L\'evy-driven escape process from a metastable state well agrees with the numerical calculation of the average voltage drop across the junction. The best performances are reached at small bias currents and low temperatures, \emph{i.e.}, when both thermally activated and quantum tunneling switching processes can be neglected. The effects discussed in this work pave the way toward an effective and reliable method to characterize L\'evy components eventually present in an unknown noisy signal., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Josephson junctions can be employed to reveal a sinusoidal signal in presence of Gaussian noise. To mimic realistic setups, the detection is performed linearly ramping the bias current until a switch to the finite voltage occurs; the analysis of the resulting switching currents can be exploited to decide about the presence of the harmonic drive. The signal is applied in two conditions: with an unknown initial phase (incoherent strategy) and with a known initial phase (coherent strategy). In both conditions, the analysis of the efficiency of the detection, performed through the signal-to-noise ratio, as estimated by the Kumar-Carrol index, shows that the dependence upon the Josephson junction ramp rate is beneficial, especially for relatively fast speed. One can conclude that the collection of the switching currents is a robust technique, and thus it is possible to exploit the advantages of a predetermined finite time to collect the data.

Josephson junctions, in appropriate configurations, can be excellent candidates for detection of single photons in the microwave frequency band. Such possibility has been recently addressed in the framework of galactic axion detection. Here are reported recent developments in the modelling and simulation of dynamic behaviour of a Josephson junction single microwave photon detector. For a Josephson junction to be enough sensitive, small critical currents and operating temperatures of the order of ten of mK are necessary. Thermal and quantum tunnelling out of the zero-voltage state can also mask the detection process. Axion detection would require dark count rates in the order of 0.001 Hz. It is, therefore, is of paramount importance to identify proper device fabrication parameters and junction operation point., Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures

We investigate the effects of an external current in a disordered Hindmarsh–Rose neural network. The external bias appears in the Hindmarsh–Rose equations as either a noise term (identical or not for all elements), or a sinusoidal drive with a phase delay between the neural units. The Hindmarsh–Rose units inside the network are non-identical and they are coupled through electrical synapses, which allow a gap junction. Measuring synchronization through the Kuramoto order parameter, that is sensitive to the synchronization among the units rather than to the regularities of the trajectories, one finds that common noise induces synchronization, while the distributed noise, as well as the distributed sinusoidal drive, can desynchronize the network. The dynamics of the neural units shows that the bursting behavior is systematically and progressively replaced by a firing activity that becomes similar to the form of the external current. Deep modifications of the single firing dynamics and of the synchronization between the units, systematically occur for a critical value of the control parameters, either the coupling strength, the external drive amplitude, or the noise intensity. We emphasize the desynchronization effect of an external current, an effect that can be relevant for epileptic seizures provoked by network synchronization. The objective of this comparison between different perturbations for the same network is to seek for possible indications of the most effective mean to induce desynchronization.

We investigate the effects of noise correlation on the coherence of a forced van der Pol type birhythmic system. The coherence of the dynamics on the time scale of intrawell oscillations, as measured by the signal-to-noise- ratio, is shown to be maximized for an appropriate choice of the noise intensity and of the noise correlation time . Other measures, related to the autocorrelation function and applicable on the longer time scale of interwell oscillations do not exhibit such nonlinear behavior. When occurs, the coherence appears similar to noise induced stochastic resonance in ordinary bistable potential systems, while the investigated birhythmic system only posses a nonequilibrium or quasi-potential associated to the orbits. Thus, it is demonstrated that correlated noise, even if the attractors are not fix points but orbits, can give rise to stochastic resonance.

This paper deal the effects of uncorrelated white noise, in a serie of Josephson Junctions coupled to a linear $RLC$ resonator. The junction are hysteretic, and hence can be considered birhythmic, that is capable to oscillate at different frequencies for the same set of parameters. Both Josephson Junctions with identical and disordered parameters are considered. With the uniform parameters, the array behaves similarly to single Josephson junctions, also in the presence of noise. The magnitude of the effective energy that characterizes the response to noise becomes smaller as the number of elements of the array increases, making the resonator less stable. Disorder in the parameters drastically changes the physics of the array. The disordered array of Josephson junctions misses the birhythmicity properties for large values of the variance of the disorder parameter. Nevertheless, the system remains birhythmic for low values of the disorder parameter. Finally, disorder makes it difficult to locate the separatrix, hinting to a more complex structure of the effective energy landscape.

We consider the problem of the nonlinear response of a Rayleigh beam to the passage of a train of forces moving with stochastic velocity. The Fourier transform and the theory of residues are used to estimate the mean square amplitude of the beam, while the stochastic averaging method gives the stationary probability density function of the oscillations amplitude. The analysis shows that the effect of the load random velocities is highly nonlinear, leading to a nonmonotonic behavior of the mean amplitude versus the intensity of the stochastic term and of the load weight. The analytic approach is also checked with numerical simulations. The effect of loads number on the system response is numerically investigated.

This paper considers the dynamics of a van der Pol birhythmic oscillator submitted both to colored noise and harmonic excitation. Applying the quasi-harmonic assumption to the corresponding Langevin equation we derive an approximated Fokker–Planck equation, that is compared with the results of computer simulations. We thus derive both the effects of the correlation time and the harmonic excitation on the parameter space where birhythmicity appears. In this region, we find that the multi-limit-cycle van der Pol oscillator reduces to an asymmetric bistable system where the sinusoidal drive intensity plays the role of asymmetric parameter, and noise can lead to stochastic bifurcations, consisting in a qualitative change of the stationary amplitude distribution. Under both influence of noise and harmonic excitation, the dynamics can be well characterized through the concepts of pseudo-potential, that regulates the low noise Arrhenius-like behavior.

The analysis of a birhythmic modified van der Pol type oscillator driven by periodic excitation and Levy noise shows the possible occurrence of coherence resonance and stochastic resonance. The frequency of the harmonic excitation in the neighborhood of one of the limit cycles influences the coherence of the dynamics on the time scale of intrawell oscillations. The autocorrelation function, the power spectral density and the signal-to-noise-ratio used in this analysis are shown to be maximized for an appropriate choice of the noise intensity. A proper adjustment of the Levy noise intensity enhances the output power spectrum of the system, that is, promotes stochastic resonance. Thus, the robustness of the resonance, that seems to occur also in the presence of nonstandard noise, is examined using standard measures. The initial selection of the attractor seems to have an influence on the coherence, while the skewness parameter of the Levy noise has not a notable impact on the resonant effect.

In this work we use a proven model to study a dynamic duopolistic competition between an old and a new technology which, through improved technical performance - e.g. data transmission capacity - fight in order to conquer market share. The process whereby an old technology fights a new one off through own improvements has been named 'sailing-ship effect'. In the simulations proposed, intentional improvements of both the old and the new technology are affected by the values of three key parameters: one scientific-technological, one purely technological and the third purely economic. The interaction between these components gives rise to different outcomes in terms of prevalence of one technology over the other.

In February 2014 Time magazine announced to the world that the first quantum computer had been put in use. One key component of this computer is the “Josephson-junction,” a superconducting device, based on completely different scientific and technological principles with respect to semiconductors. The origin of superconductors dates back to the 1960s, to a large-scale 20-year long IBM project aimed at building ultrafast computers. We present a detailed study of the relationship between Science and Technology making use of the theoretical tools of presumptive anomaly and technological paradigms: superconductors were developed while the semiconductors revolution was in full swing. We adopt a historiographical approach—using a snowballing technique to sift through the relevant literature from various epistemological domains and technical publications—to extract theoretically robust insights from a narrative which concerns great scientific advancements, technological leaps forward and business-driven innovation. The study we present shows how technological advancements, business dynamics, and policy intertwine.

We propose a threshold detector for Lévy-distributed fluctuations based on a Josephson junction. The Lévy-noise current added to a linearly ramped bias current results in clear changes in the distribution of switching currents out of the zero-voltage state of the junction. We observe that the analysis of the cumulative distribution function of the switching currents supplies information on both the characteristics' shape parameter α of the Lévy statistics. Moreover, we discuss a theoretical model, which allows characteristic features of the Lévy fluctuations to be extracted from a measured distribution of switching currents. In view of these results, this system can effectively find an application as a detector for a Lévy signal embedded in a noisy background., This work is supported by the Grant of the Government of the Russian Federation, Contract No. 074-02-2018- 330 (2). We acknowledge also partial support by Ministry of Education, University and Research of the Italian government. C.G. acknowledge the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 615187-COMANCHE. V.P. acknowledges INFN, for partial financial support through the project Virgo.

We investigate an optimal scheme for the detection of single microwave photons by a Josephson junction through the analysis of its switching times distribution. The proposed analysis is of support for the decision about the existence of the photon field, which is important in the case of rare events. We assume that the cavity and the transmission line are ideal (each photon absorbed to the cavity gives a current pulse as the output of the transmission line) and the photon source is periodic. The employed methodology consists in comparing the switching probabilities of a Josephson junction exposed to a train of current pulses, simulating a weak photon field, with that of the same device in absence of pulses. In both cases, thermal noise can induce thermal activated switchings. The investigation of the unbalance in the number of switching events in the two cases, gives an estimate of the efficiency of the detection. Furthermore, in the assumption of escapes described by Kramers model, it is possible to provide a relationship between the properties of the photons field, the quantum efficiency of the detection process, and the Josephson junctions switching features at finite temperatures.

The numerical integration of stochastic trajectories to estimate the time to pass a threshold is an interesting physical quantity, for instance in Josephson junctions and atomic force microscopy, where the full trajectory is not accessible. We propose an algorithm suitable for efficient implementation on graphical processing unit in CUDA environment. The proposed approach for well balanced loads achieves almost perfect scaling with the number of available threads and processors, and allows an acceleration of about 400x with a GPU GTX980 respect to standard multicore CPU. This method allows with off the shell GPU to challenge problems that are otherwise prohibitive, as thermal activation in slowly tilted potentials. In particular, we demonstrate that it is possible to simulate the switching currents distributions of Josephson junctions in the timescale of actual experiments., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures

We analytically and numerically investigate a set of N identical and non-identical Hindmarsh–Rose neuronal models with nearest-neighbor and global couplings. The stability boundary of the synchronized states is analyzed using the Master Stability Function approach for the case of identical oscillators (complete synchronization) and the Kuramoto order parameter for the disordered case (phase synchronization). We find that, through a linear coupling modeling electrical synapses, complete synchronization occurs in a system of many nearest-neighbor or globally coupled identical oscillators, and in the case of non-identical neurons it is stable even in the presence of a spread of the parameters. We find that the Hindmarsh–Rose neuronal models can synchronize when coupled through the action of potential variable or through the interaction by rapid flows of ions through the membrane. The degree of connectivity of the network favors synchronization: in the global coupling case, the threshold for the in-phase state stabilizes when the number of dynamical units increases. The transition from disordered to the ordered state is a second order dynamical phase transition, although very sharp.

We consider the response to uncorrelated noise and harmonic excitation of a birhythmic van der Pol-type oscillator. This system, as opposed to the standard van der Pol oscillator, is characterized by two stable orbits. The noisy oscillator can be analytically mapped, with the technique of stochastic averaging, onto an ordinary bistable system with a bistable (quasi)potential. The birhythmic oscillator can also be numerically characterized through the diagnostics of coherent resonance and the signal-to-noise-ratio. The analysis shows the presence of noise-induced coherent states, influenced by the different time scales of the oscillator.

We explore the effect of noise on the ballistic graphene-based small Josephson junctions in the framework of the resistively and capacitively shunted model. We use the non-sinusoidal current-phase relation specific for graphene layers partially covered by superconducting electrodes. The noise induced escapes from the metastable states, when the external bias current is ramped, give the switching current distribution, i.e. the probability distribution of the passages to finite voltage from the superconducting state as a function of the bias current, that is the information more promptly available in the experiments. We consider a noise source that is a mixture of two different types of processes: a Gaussian contribution to simulate an uncorrelated ordinary thermal bath, and non-Gaussian, $\alpha$-stable (or L\'evy) term, generally associated to non-equilibrium transport phenomena. We find that the analysis of the switching current distribution makes it possible to efficiently detect a non-Gaussian noise component in a Gaussian background.

Regions with negative differential resistance can arise in the IV curve of Josephson junctions and this phenomenon plays an essential role for applications, in particular for THz radiation emission. For the measurement of high frequency radiation from Josephson junctions, a cavity – either internal or external – is often used. A cavity may also induce a negative differential resistance region at the lower side of the resonance frequency. We investigate the dynamics of Josephson junctions with a negative differential resistance in the quasi particle tunnel current, i.e. in the McCumber curve. We find that very complicated and unexpected interactions take place. This may be useful for the interpretation of experimental measurements of THz radiation from intrinsic Josephson junctions.

The quantum character of Josephson junctions is ordinarily revealed through the analysis of the switching currents, i.e. the current at which a finite voltage appears: A sharp rise of the voltage signals the passage (tunnel) from a trapped state (the zero voltage solution) to a running state (the finite voltage solution). In this context, we investigate the probability distribution of the Josephson junctions switching current taking into account the effect of the bias sweeping rate and introducing a simple nonideal quantum measurements scheme. The measurements are modelled as repeated voltage samplings at discrete time intervals, that is with repeated projections of the time dependent quantum solutions on the static or the running states, to retrieve the probability distribution of the switching currents. The distribution appears to be immune of the quantum Zeno effect, and it is close to, but distinguishable from, the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation. For energy barriers comparable to the quantum fundamental energy state and in the fast bias current ramp rate the difference is neat, and remains sizeable in the asymptotic slow rate limit. This behaviour is a consequence of the quantum character of the system that confirms the presence of a backreaction of quantum measurements on the outcome of mesoscopic Josephson junctions., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures

We tackle the problem of accurate simulations of switching currents arising from tunnel events in the washboard potentials associated to Josephson junctions. The measurements of the probability distribution of the switching currents is essential to determine the quantum character of the device, and therefore is at the core of technological applications, as Josephson junctions, that have been proposed for quantum computers. In particular, we show how to accurately calibrate the parameters of the boundary conditions to avoid spurious reflections of the wavefunction from the finite border of numerical simulations. The proposed approximate numerical scheme exploits a quantum version of a prefect matched layers for the boundary problems associated with this class of potentials. Thus, we employ the analogous of a well established electromagnetic method to deal with radiation in mesoscopic quantum systems. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the known analytic results are well recovered in the appropriated limits of quantum measurements. We also find that a relaxation time shows up in the dynamics of the quantum evolution in between two consecutive measurements.

We have investigated the phase dynamics and IV-characteristics of shunted Josephson junctions coupled to an $LC$ circuit. When the Josephson frequency $\omega_J$ is close to the eigen frequency $\omega_{rc}$ of the coupled resonance circuit, the IV-characteristic demonstrates an additional $rc$-branch. We have investigated the features of the $rc$-branch and of the superconducting current component for different values of the resonance frequency. It has been found that the maximal value of the superconducting current depends on the resonance frequency and that it increases when the end point of the $rc$-branch approaches the critical current. The dependence of the maximal superconducting current on the resonance frequency at different values of the dissipation parameter is peculiar, for the optimized maximum appears to be independent of the system parameters within $1\%$., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures

One of the key features of our economies consists of the coexistence of different technologies supplying similar products and services. We often observe that an old technology is improved when a new one appears; behind this process of improvement often lies an intentional research activity. There thus begins a competition between the two technologies whose performances are improved via R&D. We focus our attention on this competition process and supply a formal model, based on the optimization of R&D expenditure of both technologies, which can describe the dynamics of the delayed overtaking of the new technology over the old one.

We consider in this paper the dynamics and synchronization of coupled chaotic Van der PolDuffing systems. The stability of the synchronization process between two coupled autonomous Van der Pol model is first analyzed analytically and numerically, before following the problem of synchronizing chaos both on the same and different chaotic orbits of two coupled Van der Pol-Duffing systems. The stability boundaries of the synchronization process are derived and the effects of the amplitude of the periodic perturbation of the coupling parameter on these boundaries are analyzed. The results are provided on the stability map in the (q, K) plane.

We show how to analyze the motion of very low dissipation suspended mirrors in a Fabry-Perot. The very precise measurements of the mirrors motion can be determined, also in the presence of a disturbing noise, by means of the sudden reflectivity changes in special points of the mirrors positions. When the mirrors cross such positions, the effective opto-mechanical potential that arises in the device is (roughly) at a maximum. We show that the motion cross such potential maxima is not only confused by the presence of noise, but also favoured by noise itself that induces hoppings. Thus, the measurements of the times at which the crossings occur can be exploited to identify the properties of the applied signal. We also show how to circumvent the difficulty of the extremely long transient that occur in the system analyzing the escape average time with two different methods: a direct sample average and the indirect estimate from the tail distribution. Numerical simulations and physical insight suggest that the indirect estimate, through the analysis of the distribution tails with an appropriated cut off is robust against the disturbances that arise from the presence of transient dynamics.

We consider one-dimensional mixtures of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and Tonks- Giradeau (TG) gas. The mixture is modeled by a coupled system of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the BEC and the quintic nonlinear Schroedinger equation for the TG component. An immiscibility condition for the binary system is derived in a general form. Under this condition, three types of BEC-TG interfaces are considered: domain walls (DWs) separating the two components; bubble-drops (BDs), in the form of a drop of one component immersed into the other (BDs may be considered as bound states of two DWs); and bound states of bright and dark solitons (BDSs). The same model applies to the copropagation of two optical waves in a colloidal medium. The results are obtained by means of systematic numerical analysis, in combination with analytical Thomas-Fermi approximations (TFAs). Using both methods, families of DW states are produced in a generic form. BD complexes exist solely in the form of a TG drop embedded into the BEC background. On the contrary, BDSs exist as bound states of TG bright and BEC dark components, and vice versa., Comment: to appear in New J. Phys. (a focus issue on "strongly interacting quantum gases in one dimension")

We discuss how to exploit stochastic resonance with the methods of statistical theory of decisions. To do so, we evaluate two detection strategies: escape time analysis and strobing. For a standard quartic bistable system with a periodic drive and disturbed by noise, we show that the detection strategies and the physics of the double well are connected, inasmuch as one (the strobing strategy) is based on synchronization, while the other (escape time analysis) is determined by the possibility to accumulate energy in the oscillations. The analysis of the escape times best performs at the frequency of the geometric resonance, while strobing shows a peak of the performances at a special noise level predicted by the stochastic resonance theory. We surmise that the detection properties of the quartic potential are generic for overdamped and underdamped systems, in that the physical nature of resonance decides the competition (in terms of performances) between different detection strategies., Comment: To appear on Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simulat. (2015); Keywords: Stochastic resonance, Random processes, Inference methods, Time series analysis