A nonperturbative approach is developed to analyze superconducting circuits coupled to quantized electromagnetic continuum within the framework of the functional renormalization group. The formalism allows us to determine complete physical pictures of equilibrium properties in the circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architectures with high-impedance waveguides, which have recently become accessible in experiments. We point out that nonperturbative effects can trigger a breakdown of the supposedly effective descriptions, such as the spin-boson and boundary sine-Gordon models, and lead to qualitatively unique phase diagrams. The origin of the failure of conventional understandings is traced to strong renormalizations of circuit parameters at low-energy scales. Our results indicate that a nonperturbative analysis is essential for a comprehensive understanding of cQED platforms consisting of superconducting circuits and long high-impedance transmission lines.
A nonperturbative approach is developed to analyze superconducting circuits coupled to quantized electromagnetic continuum within the framework of the functional renormalization group. The formalism allows us to determine complete physical pictures of equilibrium properties in the circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architectures with high-impedance waveguides, which have recently become accessible in experiments. We point out that nonperturbative effects can trigger a breakdown of the supposedly effective descriptions, such as the spin-boson and boundary sine-Gordon models, and lead to qualitatively unique phase diagrams. The origin of the failure of conventional understandings is traced to strong renormalizations of circuit parameters at low-energy scales. Our results indicate that a nonperturbative analysis is essential for a comprehensive understanding of cQED platforms consisting of superconducting circuits and long high-impedance transmission lines.
Understanding physical properties of quantum emitters strongly interacting with quantized electromagnetic modes is one of the primary goals in the emergent field of waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED). When the light-matter coupling strength is comparable to or even exceeds energies of elementary excitations, conventional approaches based on perturbative treatment of light-matter interactions, two-level description of matter excitations, and photon-number truncation are no longer sufficient. Here we study in and out of equilibrium properties of waveguide QED in such nonperturbative regimes on the basis of a comprehensive and rigorous theoretical approach using an asymptotic decoupling unitary transformation. We uncover several surprising features ranging from symmetry-protected many-body bound states in the continuum to strong renormalization of the effective mass and potential; the latter may explain recent experiments demonstrating cavity-induced changes in chemical reactivity as well as enhancements of ferromagnetism or superconductivity. To illustrate our general results with concrete examples, we use our formalism to study a model of coupled cavity arrays, which is relevant to experiments in superconducting qubits interacting with microwave resonators or atoms coupled to photonic crystals. We examine the relation between our results and delocalization-localization transition in the spin-boson model; notably, we point out that a reentrant transition can occur in the regimes where the coupling strength becomes the dominant energy scale. We also discuss applications of our results to other problems in different fields, including quantum optics, condensed matter physics, and quantum chemistry.
As superconducting circuits emerge as a leading platform for scalable quantum information processing, building comprehensive bridges from the foundational principles of macroscopic quantum phenomena to the architecture of modern quantum devices is increasingly essential for introducing new researchers to the field. This tutorial provides a self-contained, pedagogical introduction to superconducting quantum circuits at the undergraduate level. Beginning with an overview of superconductivity and the Josephson effect, the tutorial systematically develops the quantization of microwave circuits into the framework of circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). The transmon qubit is then introduced as a state-of-the-art application, with a detailed derivation of its Hamiltonian and its interaction with control and readout circuitry. The theoretical formalism is consolidated through a numerical simulation of vacuum Rabi oscillations in a driven transmon-resonator system, a canonical experiment that demonstrates the coherent energy exchange characteristic of the strong coupling regime. This work serves as a foundational guide and first point of contact, equipping students and researchers with the conceptual and mathematical tools necessary to understand and engineer superconducting quantum hardware.
Waveguide circuit quantum electrodynamics (waveguide circuit QED) studies light-matter interaction with superconducting circuits in one dimension. In circuit QED, natural atoms are replaced by superconducting qubits consisting of a non-linear Josephson junction, resulting in an anharmonic energy spectrum just like real atoms. With superconducting qubits, it is possible to study quantum optical phenomena and reach new regimes hard to achieve with real atoms due to weak coupling to the electromagnetic field. The reduction to one dimension in waveguide QED increases the electromagnetic field's directionality, which results in reduced losses. In this thesis, we first introduce circuit quantisation, giving the basis for the next part, where we investigate a transmon, a charge-insensitive artificial atom, coupled to a semi-infinite transmission line. An atom coupled to a semi-infinite waveguide is referred to as an atom in front of a mirror and is the subject of all appended papers. We proceed by summarising Paper I and III's main results: in Paper I, we investigate the spontaneous emission of a transmon coupled to a semi-infinite transmission line, where we take time-delay effects into account. We find that the system dynamics strongly depend on the coupling strength to the transmission line and the atom's position with respect to the electromagnetic field, leading to the Purcell effect or the convergence to a dark state with finite excitation probability. In the high-impedance regime, which we investigate in Paper III, the properties of the transmon coupled to the high-impedance transmission line change drastically. It becomes highly reflective and creates its own cavity with the mirror, resulting in the emergence of cavity modes and vacuum Rabi oscillations in the spontaneous emission dynamics. In the next chapter of the thesis, we demonstrate how to quantise an electromagnetic field and derive a light-matter interaction Hamiltonian within dipole approximation. We then give an introduction to open quantum systems and derive the quantum-optical master equation in Lindblad form. Furthermore, we introduce the dressed state picture, where the interaction of light and matter is so strong that the individual energy levels of light and matter are no longer separable. Both the quantum optical master equation and the dressed state picture are relevant in Paper II and IV. In Paper II, an experimental collaboration, we perform several experiments to characterise and discriminate different decay rates of a superconducting qubit coupled to the end of a transmission line. One experiment measured the atomic fluorescence spectral density, which shows an asymmetry for off-resonant driving, resulting from pure dephasing: an effect that we explain in more detail in this thesis and Paper II. In Paper IV, we theoretically investigate amplification mechanisms realised by different set-ups of an atom coupled to a semi-infinite waveguide. In the considered systems, the amplification of a probe field happens either due to population inversion between the pure states or dressed states or multi-photon processes. We find that compared to an open waveguide, we can achieve a higher gain in the amplification with a semi-infinite waveguide.
Devices built using superconducting circuits are a popular approach being pursued to develop quantum information processing hardware. These systems involve the quantized interactions of electromagnetic fields with large coherent collections of charges in superconductors, and so are typically referred to as macroscopic circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) devices or simply circuit QED devices. Although significant progress has been made recently, substantial engineering efforts are required to improve performance and scale these devices so they can address problems of practical interest. Performing these engineering efforts is difficult due to the absence of rigorous numerical modeling approaches. This work begins to address this by providing a new mathematical description of a commonly used circuit QED system, a transmon qubit coupled to microwave transmission lines. Expressed in terms of three-dimensional vector fields, our model is better suited to developing rigorous numerical solvers than approximate lumped element circuit descriptions used in the literature. We present details on the quantization of our model, and derive equations of motion for the coupled field-transmon system. These results can be used in developing full-wave solvers in the future. To make this work more accessible, we assume a limited amount of training in quantum physics and provide many background details.
The quantization of superconducting transmission-line resonators is usually introduced phenomenologically by modeling the resonator as an effective LC circuit and imposing canonical commutation relations on macroscopic variables such as charge and flux. Although this approach is highly successful, it leaves open why these macroscopic variables should obey quantum commutation relations and how this behavior emerges from the superconducting state. In this work, starting from the microscopic pairing Hamiltonian underlying BCS superconductivity, we derive the low-energy effective Hamiltonian of a circuit-QED architecture containing a superconducting transmission line with distributed capacitive and inductive elements. We establish quantitative relations between macroscopic observables, including current and voltage, and the spatially local superconducting phase, as well as the microscopic parameters of the electron-phonon system. We then extend the third quantization of the superconducting order parameter, introduced in Paper (I) for the global phase, to the spatially local case. This gives a macroscopic field quantization of the superconducting phase. We show that, after restriction to the low-energy excitation subspace, the local superconducting phase becomes a genuine quantum dynamical variable. Thus, the quantum behavior of transmission-line resonators need not be postulated at the macroscopic level, but follows from the third quantization of the superconducting order parameter. These results suggest that capacitive and inductive superconducting circuit elements share the same microscopic origin, providing a unified framework for superconducting circuit quantization.
Abstract Superconducting circuits are one of the leading quantum platforms for quantum technologies. With growing system complexity, it is of crucial importance to develop scalable circuit models that contain the minimum information required to predict the behaviour of the physical system. Based on microwave engineering methods, divergent and non-divergent Hamiltonian models in circuit quantum electrodynamics have been proposed to explain the dynamics of superconducting quantum networks coupled to infinite-dimensional systems, such as transmission lines and general impedance environments. Here, we study systematically common linear coupling configurations between networks and infinite-dimensional systems. The main result is that the simple Lagrangian models for these configurations present an intrinsic natural length that provides a natural ultraviolet cutoff. This length is due to the unavoidable dressing of the environment modes by the network. In this manner, the coupling parameters between their components correctly manifest their natural decoupling at high frequencies. Furthermore, we show the requirements to correctly separate infinite-dimensional coupled systems in local bases. We also compare our analytical results with other analytical and approximate methods available in the literature. Finally, we propose several applications of these general methods to analogue quantum simulation of multi-spin-boson models in non-perturbative coupling regimes.