Quantum Phase Transitions in Superconducting Arrays with General Capacitance Matrices

TL;DR

This paper explores quantum phase transitions in 2D superconducting arrays with complex capacitance matrices, revealing phase diagrams with insulating lobes and potential supersolid phases through theoretical and simulation methods.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of phase diagrams in superconducting arrays with general capacitance matrices using perturbation theory, simulated annealing, and Monte Carlo simulations.

Findings

Insulating lobes of solid phases exist at low temperatures.

Phase diagrams display lobe-like structures of insulating phases.

Monte Carlo simulations support the phase diagram results.

Abstract

We investigate quantum phase transitions in two-dimensional superconducting arrays with general capacitance matrices and discrete charge states. We use the perturbation theory together with the simulated annealing method to obtain the zero-temperature phase diagrams, which display various lobe-like structures of insulating solid phases, and examine the possibility of supersolid phase. At nonzero temperatures, an effective classical Hamiltonian is obtained through the use of the variational method in the path-integral formalism, and the corresponding phase diagram is found approximately. The insulating lobes of the solid phases are shown to exist at sufficiently low temperatures, and results of Monte Carlo simulations are also presented.