2003/07/15 by C. J. Olson Reichhardt, C. J. O. Reichhardt, M. B. Hastings
Physics and Astronomy · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.92.157002
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 157002 (2004) · 4 pages, 3 postscript figures
arxiv created 2003/07/15 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We propose an experiment for directly constructing and locally probing topologically entangled states of superconducting vortices which can be performed with present-day technology. Calculations using an elastic string vortex model indicate that as the pitch (the winding angle divided by the vertical distance) increases, the vortices approach each other. At values of the pitch higher than a maximum value the entangled state becomes unstable to collapse via a singularity of the model. We provide predicted experimental signatures for both vortex entanglement and vortex cutting. The local probe we propose can also be used to explore a wide range of other quantities.