The quantum mechanics of the Josephson effect is the core ingredient for quantum technologies with superconducting circuits. A new avenue was recently opened in this field by predicting that the Josephson quantum mechanics in the odd parity sector, when a quasiparticle is trapped in an Andreev bound state, is fundamentally different from the conventional one in the even sector. The focus was then on a Josephson junction surrounded by an electromagnetic environment formed of a collection of bosonic modes, including the case of an ohmic environment. Here we consider the distinct case of a superconducting qubit made of a single Josephson junction whose environment reduces to a capacitance. We find a novel structure for the low-lying discrete states in the odd sector, which is altogether different from the one that appears in the even sector. Our study of the bound-state spectrum ranges from the Coulomb-dominated (Cooper pair box) to the Josephson-dominated (transmon) regime. Our prediction could be tested in forthcoming experiments with superconductor/semiconductor/superconductor junctions, which have been studied intensively in recent years, both using nanowires as well as two-dimensional electron gases.

Andreev molecule states arise from hybridization of Andreev bound states in different Josephson junctions. Extensive theoretical and experimental research concentrates on direct coherent electron coupling between the junctions: this implies the distance between the junctions is of the order of the superconducting coherence length, that is, short. We propose and discuss the possibility to create Andreev molecules at long (in principle, arbitrary long) distance between the junctions. In this case, the hybridized states are excited quasiparticle singlets and the coupling is provided by an embedding electric circuit. To achieve a strong hybridization, one aligns the energies of the Andreev bound states by tuning the associated phase drops. In fact, a recent experiment realizes such setup. With circuit theory we derive the hybridization level splitting and estimate the scale of the effect. Since the phenomenon encompasses excited states, we derive and solve the associated Lindblad equation under condition of persistent resonant excitation. By analyzing the resulting dissipative dynamics, we identify relevant regimes where the hybridization and resonant excitation peaks are most pronounced. The low-frequency mutual inductance of the Josephson junctions is an important signature of the molecular state and the associated nonlocal Josephson effect. We demonstrate the peak structures for both mutual and self-inductance, and compute them in various frequency regimes. In an interesting common case, the embedding circuit includes an oscillator, which can be used both to enhance hybridization and to read out the quantum states with two-tone spectroscopy. We derive and solve the Lindblad equation for the two-tone spectroscopy setup to demonstrate the readout of the molecular states. If the readout and enhancement of the hybridization are provided by different oscillators, we demonstrate that the states can be immediately identified from the oscillator response. However, in a more restricted setup where the same oscillator is used, the oscillator response manifests more resonant peaks, indicating all transitions between states with different photon numbers.

Coulomb blockade is a universal phenomenon in electron transport in artificially made nanostructures. It can be understood by a simple and closed reasoning given in this article. We concentrate on big normal Coulomb islands omitting superconductivity and discreteness of electron spectrum. We review the basic concepts of Coulomb blockade, consider the work of generic devices—SEB en SET, master equation approach for single electron transfer. We outline quantum effects and co-tunneling, and shortly review the applications of the phenomenon.

We study the current-phase relation (CPR) of an InSb-Al nanowire Josephson junction in parallel magnetic fields up to 700 mT. At high magnetic fields and in narrow voltage intervals of a gate under the junction, the CPR exhibits π shifts. The supercurrent declines within these gate intervals and shows asymmetric gate voltage dependence above and below them. We detect these features sometimes also at zero magnetic field. The observed CPR properties are reproduced by a theoretical model of supercurrent transport via interference between direct transmission and a resonant localized state.

A Josephson junction may be in a stable odd-parity state when a single quasiparticle is trapped in an Andreev bound state. Embedding such junction in an electromagnetic environment gives rise to a special quantum mechanics of the superconducting phase that we investigate theoretically. Our analysis covers several representative cases, from the lifting of the supercurrent quench due to quasiparticle poisoning for a low ohmic impedance of the environment, to a Schmid transition in a current-biased junction that for odd parity occurs at four times bigger critical impedance. For intermediate impedances, the supercurrent in the odd state is higher than in the even one.

We show that the quasicontinuous gapless spectrum of Andreev bound states in multiterminal semi-classical superconducting nanostructures exhibits a large number of topological singularities. We concentrate on Weyl points in a four-terminal nanostructure and compute their density and correlations in three-dimensional parameter space for a universal random matrix theory model as well as for the concrete nanostructures described by the quantum circuit theory. We mention the opportunities for experimental observation of the effect in a quasicontinuous spectrum.

It has been shown that a Weyl point in a superconducting nanostructure may give rise to a Weyl disk where two quantum states are almost degenerate in a two-dimensional manifold in the parametric space. This opens up the possibility of a holonomic quantum manipulation: A transformation of the wave function upon an adiabatic change of the parameters within the degenerate manifold. In this paper, we investigate in detail the opportunities for holonomic manipulation in Weyl disks. We compute the connection at the manifold in quasiclassical approximation to show it is Abelian and can be used for a phase gate. To provide a closed example of quantum manipulation that includes a state preparation and readout, we augment the holonomic gate with a change of parameters that brings the system out of the degenerate subspace. For numerical illustrations, we use a finite value of quasiclassical parameter and exact quantum dynamics. We investigate the fidelity of an example gate for different execution times. We evaluate the decoherence rate and show it can be made small to ensure a wide frequency range where an adiabatic manipulation remains coherent.

The energy levels of a quasicontinuous spectrum in mesoscopic systems fluctuate in positions and the distribution of the fluctuations reveals information about the microscopic nature of the structure under consideration. Here, we investigate mesoscopic fluctuations of a secondary gap that appears in the quasiclassical spectrum of a chaotic cavity coupled to one or more superconductors. Utilizing a random matrix model, we compute numerically the energies of Andreev levels and access the distribution of the gap widths. We mostly concentrate on the universal regime ETh≫Δ, with ETh being the Thouless energy of the cavity and Δ being the superconducting gap. We find that the distribution is determined by an intermediate energy scale Δg with the value between the level spacing in the cavity δs and the quasiclassical value of the gap Eg. From our numerics we extrapolate the first two cumulants of the gap distribution in the limit of large level and channel number. We find that the scaled distribution in this regime is the Tracy-Widom distribution: the same as found by Vavilov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 874 (2001)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.86.874] for the distribution of the minigap edge in the opposite limit EThΔ. This leads us to the conclusion that the distribution found is a universal property of chaotic proximity systems at the edge of a continuous spectrum in agreement with the known random matrix models featuring a square root singularity in the density of states.

A generic semiclassical superconducting nanostructure connected to multiple superconducting terminals hosts a quasicontinuous spectrum of Andreev states. The spectrum is sensitive to the superconducting phases of the terminals. It can be either gapped or gapless depending on the point in the multidimensional parametric space of these phases. Special points in this space correspond to setting some terminals to the phase 0 and the rest to the phase of π. For a generic nanostructure, three distinct spectra come together in the vicinity of a special point: two gapped phases of different topology and a gapless phase separating the two by virtue of topological protection. In this paper, we show that a weak interaction manifesting as quantum fluctuations of superconducting phases drastically changes the spectrum in a narrow vicinity of a special point. We develop an interaction model and derive a universal generic quantum action that describes this situation. The action is complicated incorporating a nonlocal in time matrix order parameter, and its full analysis is beyond the scope of the present paper. Here, we identify and address two limits: the semiclassical one and the quantum one, concentrating on the first-order interaction correction in the last case. In both cases, we find that the interaction squeezes the domain of the gapless phase in the narrow vicinity of the point so the gapped phases tend to contact each other immediately defying the topological protection. We identify the domains of strong coupling where the perturbation theory does not work. In the gapless phase, we find the logarithmic divergence of the first-order corrections. This leads us to an interesting hypothesis: weak interaction might induce an exponentially small gap in the formerly gapless phase.

The technology of superconductor-semiconductor nanowire devices has matured in recent years. This makes it feasible to make more complex and sophisticated devices. We investigate multiterminal superconductor-semiconductor wires to access the feasibility of another topological phenomenon: Weyl singularities in their spectrum. We have found an abundance of Weyl singularities for devices with an intermediate size of the electrodes. We describe their properties and the ways the singularities emerge and disappear upon variation of the setup parameters.

We propose to synchronize Bloch oscillations in a double phase-slip junction by modulating the gate voltage rather than the bias voltage. We show this is advantageous, and the relatively small ac modulation of the gate voltage gives rise to the pronounced plateaus of quantized current of the width of the order of Coulomb blockade threshold. We theoretically investigate the setup distinguishing three regimes of strong, weak, and intermediate coupling, defined by the ratio of the gate capacitance C and the effective capacitance of the phase-slip junctions. An important feature of the intermediate-coupling regime is the occurrence of the fractional plateaus of the quantized current. We investigate the finite temperature effects, finding an empirical scaling for the smoothing of integer plateaus.

We propose a scheme to perform braiding and all other unitary operations with Majorana modes in one dimension that, in contrast to previous proposals, is solely based on resonant manipulation involving the first excited state extended over the modes. The detection of the population of the excited state also enables initialization and read-out. We provide an elaborated illustration of the scheme with a concrete device.

We propose a four-state quantum system, or quantum unit, that can be realized in superconducting heterostructures. The unit combines the states of a spin and an Andreev qubit providing the opportunity of quantum superpositions of their states. This functionality is achieved by tunnel coupling between a four-terminal superconducting heterostructure housing a Weyl point and a quantum dot. The quantum states in the vicinity of the Weyl point are extremely sensitive to small changes of superconducting phase; this gives rich opportunities for quantum manipulation. We establish an effective Hamiltonian for the setup and describe the peculiarities of the resulting spectrum. We concentrate on the four-state subspace and explain how to make a double qubit in this setup. We review various ways to achieve quantum manipulation in the unit: this includes resonant, adiabatic, diabatic manipulation and combinations of those. We provide detailed illustrations of designing arbitrary quantum gates in the unit.

A Weyl point in a superconducting nanostructure is a generic minimum model of a topological singularity at low energies. We connect the nanostructure to normal leads thereby immersing the topological singularity in the continuous spectrum of the electron states in the leads. This sets another simple and generic model useful to comprehend the modification of low-energy singularity in the presence of a continuous spectrum. The tunnel coupling to the leads gives rise to new low-energy scale Γ at which all topological features are smoothed. We investigate superconducting and normal currents in the nanostructure at this scale. We show how the tunnel currents can be used for detection of the Weyl point. Importantly, we find that the topological charge is not concentrated in a point but rather is spread over the parameter space in the vicinity of the point. We introduce and compute the resulting topological charge density. We also reveal that the pumping to the normal leads helps to detect and investigate the topological effects in the vicinity of the point.

We investigate transport in a superconducting nanostructure housing a Weyl point in the spectrum of Andreev bound states. A minimum magnet state is realized in the vicinity of the point. One or more normal-metal leads are tunnel-coupled to the nanostructure. We have shown that this minimum magnetic setup is suitable for realization of all common goals of spintronics: detection of a magnetic state, conversion of electric currents into spin currents, potentially reaching the absolute limit of one spin per charge transferred, and detection of spin accumulation in the leads. The peculiarity and possible advantage of the setup is the ability to switch between magnetic and nonmagnetic states by tiny changes of the control parameters: superconducting phase differences. We employ this property to demonstrate the feasibility of less common spintronic effects: spin on demand and alternative spin current.

We show that the annihilation dynamics of excess quasiparticles in superconductors may result in the spontaneous formation of large spin-polarized clusters. This presents a novel scenario for spontaneous spin polarization. We estimate the relevant scales for aluminum, finding the feasibility of clusters with total spin S≃10^{4}ℏ that could be spread over microns. The fluctuation dynamics of such large spins may be detected by measuring the flux noise in a loop hosting a cluster.

The recent proposals of devices with overlapping Andreev bound states (ABS) open up opportunities to control and fine tune their spectrum that can be used in various applications in quantum sensing and manipulation. In this paper, we study the ABS in a device consisting of a semiconducting nanowire covered with three superconducting leads. The ABS are formed at two junctions where the wire is not covered. They overlap in the wire where the electron propagation is 1D and in one of the leads where the propagation is 3D. We identify a number of regimes where these two overlaps either dominate or compete, depending on the junction separation L as compared to the correlation lengths ζw,ζs in the wire and in the lead, respectively. We utilize a simple model of 1D electron spectrum in the nanowire and take into account the quality of the contact between the nanowire and the superconducting lead. We present the spectra for different L, detailing the transition from a single ABS in the regime of strong 1D hybridization to two almost independent ABS hybridized at the degeneracy points, in the regime of weak 1D hybridization. We present the details of merging the upper ABS with the continuous spectrum upon decreasing L. We study in detail the effect of quantum interference due to the phase accumulated during the electron passage between the junctions. We develop a perturbation theory for analytical treatment of hybridization. We address an interesting separate case of fully transparent junctions. We derive and exemplify a perturbation theory suitable for the competition regime demonstrating the interference of 1D and two 3D transmission amplitudes.

Recently, we have proposed an unusual mechanism of superconducting current that is specific for quantum Hall edge channels connected to superconducting electrodes. We have shown that the supercurrent can be mediated by a nonlocal electron-electron interaction that provides an opportunity for a long-distance information transfer in the direction opposite to the electron flow. A convenient model for such interaction is that of an external circuit. The consideration has been performed for the case of a single channel. In order to facilitate the experimental verification and the observation of peculiar features of the effect, in this paper, we provide a more detailed description of the phenomenon and extend the results to more sophisticated setups. We establish that the dynamical phase contributes to superconducting interference; this being the manifestation of the channel chirality. We consider setups that include the scattering between quantum Hall channels of opposite direction and multiple superconducting contacts. For a single quantum Hall constriction, we derive a general and comprehensive relation for the interaction-induced supercurrent in terms of scattering amplitudes and demonstrate the nonlocal nature of the current by considering its sensitivity to scattering. In multiterminal setups, we reveal the characteristic phase dependences of the supercurrents explaining those in terms of interference of Andreev reflection processes. For more complex setups encompassing, at least, two constrictions, we find an interplay between noninteracting and interaction-induced currents and contributions of more complex interference processes.

We show theoretically that in the superconducting nanostructures the gapped states of different topology are not always protected by separating gapless states. Depending on the structure design parameters, they can be either protected or not, with a protection-unprotection transition separating these two distinct situations. We build up a general theoretical description of the transition vicinity in the spirit of Landau theory. We speculate that similar protection-unprotection transitions may also occur for other realizations of topological protection in condensed matter systems.

We address the statistics of a simultaneous continuous weak linear measurement of two noncommuting variables on a few-state quantum system subject to a postselected evolution. The results of both postselected quantum measurement and simultaneous monitoring of two noncommuting variables differ drastically from the results of either classical or quantum projective measurement. We explore the peculiarities arising from the combination of the two. We concentrate on the distribution function of two measurement outcomes integrated over a time interval. We formulate a proper formalism for the evaluation of such distribution, and further compute and discuss the resulting statistics for idealized and experimentally relevant setups. We demonstrate the visibility and manifestations of the interference between initial and final states in the statistics of measurement outcomes for both variables in various regimes. We analytically predict the peculiarities at the circle O12+O22=1 in the distribution of measurement outcomes O1,2 in the limit of short measurement times and confirm this by numerical calculation at longer measurement times. We demonstrate analytically the anomalously large values of the time-integrated output cumulants in the limit of short measurement times and zero overlap between initial and final states, and give the detailed distributions for this case. We term this situation sudden jump. We present the numerical evaluation of the probability distributions for experimentally relevant parameters in several regimes and demonstrate that interference effects in the postselected measurement can be accurately predicted even if they are small.