ac-locking of thermally-induced sine-Gordon breathers

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive framework for exciting and detecting thermally-induced, stabilized sine-Gordon breathers in ac-driven long Josephson junctions, highlighting temperature as a key control parameter for stable localized modes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to stabilize and detect sine-Gordon breathers via thermal effects and ac driving in Josephson junctions, with experimental signatures identified.

Findings

Stable breathers form at high temperatures

Breather generation probability varies nonmonotonically with thermal noise

Resistive switching signatures indicate breather presence

Abstract

A complete framework for exciting and detecting thermally-induced, stabilized sine-Gordon breathers in ac-driven long Josephson junctions is developed. The formation of long-time stable breathers locked to the ac source occurs for a sufficiently high temperature. The latter emerges as a powerful control parameter, allowing for the remarkably stable localized modes to appear. Nonmonotonic behaviors of both the breather generation probability and the energy spatial correlations versus the thermal noise strength are found. The junction's resistive switching characteristics provides a clear experimental signature of the breather.