Field theoretic description of the abelian and non-abelian Josephson effect

TL;DR

This paper develops a field theoretic framework for the Josephson effect, extending it from abelian to non-abelian systems, and interprets tunneling as pseudo-Goldstone boson excitation, with applications in physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel field theoretic formalism for the non-abelian Josephson effect, enabling broader applications in particle and condensed matter physics.

Findings

Formalism successfully describes non-abelian Josephson tunneling.

Demonstrates the approach with specific non-abelian order parameter systems.

Provides insights into symmetry breaking phenomena in various physical contexts.

Abstract

We formulate the Josephson effect in a field theoretic language which affords a straightforward generalization to the non-abelian case. Our formalism interprets Josephson tunneling as the excitation of pseudo-Goldstone bosons. We demonstrate the formalism through the consideration of a single junction separating two regions with a purely non-abelian order parameter and a sandwich of three regions where the central region is in a distinct phase. Applications to various non-abelian symmetry breaking systems in particle and condensed matter physics are given.