Meissner effect in Fock space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how periodic driving of a bosonic Josephson junction with an impurity creates a synthetic gauge field in Fock space, leading to quantum phase transitions analogous to superconducting phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a method to induce and study gauge fields and phase transitions in Fock space through periodic driving of a BJJ with an impurity, revealing novel quantum critical behavior.

Findings

Identification of a quantum phase transition analogous to the Meissner-Abrikosov transition

Enhanced sensitivity to phase transitions due to attractive interactions

Synthetic gauge fields generated in Fock space via periodic driving

Abstract

By periodically driving a single bosonic Josephson junction (BJJ) with an impurity, a synthetic gauge field is generated in the Fock space of the system. At a critical synthetic gauge flux the ground state undergoes a quantum phase transition which is analogous to the Meissner-Abrikosov-vortex transition found in type-II superconductors with an applied magnetic field. A second quantum phase transition involving attractive interactions between the bosons of the BJJ is shown to enhance the sensitivity of the system to the Meissner-Abrikosov-vortex transition.