Local Quench Research Articles

The Influence of Metal Plates on Quench Protection of High Temperature Superconducting Pancake Coils

Quench has always been an urgent problem for high temperature superconductor (HTS) magnets. Fast discharge of the coil current is an effective method to protect the HTS magnet from quenching. In HTS magnets, metal plates are originally used to provide conduction cooling and mechanical support for the coil. During fast discharging operations, the metal plates can rapidly absorb part of the magnetic energy stored in the HTS coils through electromagnetic coupling. Previous studies are based on copper plates. This paper studies the influence of several promising metal materials on the discharging process of the HTS coils coupled with metal plates by experiments and simulations. The results show that in the explored resistance range, the higher the electrical conductivity of the metal plates, the better the acceleration of the current attenuation of coil at the early stage of discharging process. The effects of different metal plates on accelerating current attenuation of the coil are ranked as follows: SS 304L < Al 6061-T6 < Al (RRR = 30) < Cu (RRR = 30) < Au < Cu (RRR = 300) < Ag. However, Cu (RRR = 300) plates can absorb more energy from the HTS coil than the Ag plates during the discharging process. Copper with higher purity (Cu (RRR = 300)) and silver are promising alternatives for metal plates of HTS magnets. Generally, a fast current drop is always the most effective method for avoiding tape turn-out during a local quench; therefore, silver with the highest electrical conductivity is the best choice in view of quench protection.

Holographic local operator quenches in BCFTs

We present a gravity dual of local operator quench in a two-dimensional CFT with conformal boundaries. This is given by a massive excitation in a three-dimensional AdS space with the end of the world brane (EOW brane). Due to the gravitational backreaction, the EOW brane gets deformed in a nontrivial way. We show that the energy-momentum tensor and entanglement entropy computed from the gravity dual and from the BCFT in the large c limit match perfectly. Interestingly, this comparison avoids the folding of the EOW brane in an elegant way.

Chemical Solution Deposition of Insulating Yttria Nanolayers as Current Flow Diverter in Superconducting GdBa2Cu3O7-δ Coated Conductors.

The primary benefit of a metallic stabilization/shunt in high temperature superconductor (HTS) coated conductors (CCs) is to prevent joule heating damage by providing an alternative path for the current flow during the HTS normal state transition (i.e., quench). However, the shunt presence in combination with unavoidable fluctuations in the critical current (Ic) of the HTS film can develop a localized quench along the CC’s length if the operational current is kept close to Ic. This scenario, also known as the hot-spot regime, can lead to the rupture of the CC if the local quench does not propagate fast enough. The current flow diverter (CFD) is the CC architecture concept that has proven to increase the conductor’s robustness against a hot-spot regime by simply boosting the quench velocity in the CC, which avoids the shunt compromise in some applications. This work investigates a practical manufacturing route for incorporating the CFD architecture in a reel-to-reel system via the preparation of yttrium oxide (Y2O3) as an insulating thin nanolayer (∼100 nm) on top of a GdBa2Cu3O7 (GdBCO) superconductor. Chemical solution deposition (CSD) using ink jet printing (IJP) is shown to be a suitable manufacturing approach. Two sequences of the experimental steps have been investigated, where oxygenation of the GdBCO layer is performed after or before the solution deposition and the Y2O3 nanolayer thermal treatment formation step. A correlated analysis of the microstructure, in situ oxygenation kinetics, and superconducting properties of the Ag/Y2O3/GdBCO trilayer processed under different conditions shows that a new customized functional CC can be prepared. The successful achievement of the CFD effect in the case of the preoxygenated customized CC was confirmed by measuring the current transfer length, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the CSD-IJP as a processing method.

Asymmetric transport in long-range interacting chiral spin chains

Harnessing power-law interactions (1/r^\alpha1/rα) in a large variety of physical systems are increasing. We study the dynamics of chiral spin chains as a possible multi-directional quantum channel. This arises from the nonlinear character of the dispersion with complex quantum interference effects. Using complementary numerical and analytical techniques, we propose a model to guide quantum states to a desired direction. We illustrate our approach using the long-range XXZ model modulated by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. By exploring non-equilibrium dynamics after a local quantum quench, we identify the interplay of interaction range \alphaα and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling giving rise to an appreciable asymmetric spin excitations transport. This could be interesting for quantum information protocols to transfer quantum states, and it may be testable with current trapped-ion experiments. We further explore the growth of block entanglement entropy in these systems, and an order of magnitude reduction is distinguished.

Influence of a nonuniform thermal quench and circular polarized radiation on spontaneous current generation in superconducting rings

We theoretically study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the order parameter of a superconducting ring inhomogeneously quenched through its transition temperature. Numerical simulations based on spectral decomposition of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation reveal that current-carrying superconducting states can be generated in the ring under certain fast local temperature quench conditions. We also show that illumination of the ring with a circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation during rapid cooling strongly promotes the generation of current-carrying states with rotation directions controlled by the helicity of the radiation field.

Entanglement entropy production in deep inelastic scattering

Deep inelastic scattering (DIS) samples a part of the wave function of a hadron in the vicinity of the light cone. Lipatov constructed a spin chain which describes the amplitude of DIS in leading logarithmic approximation. Kharzeev and Levin proposed the entanglement entropy as an observable in DIS [Phys. Rev. D 95, 114008 (2017)], and suggested a relation between the entanglement entropy and parton distributions. Here we represent the DIS process as a local quench in the Lipatov's spin chain, and study the time evolution of the produced entanglement entropy. We show that the resulting entanglement entropy depends on time logarithmically, $\mathcal S(t)=1/3 \ln{(t/\tau)}$ with $\tau = 1/m$ for $1/m \le t\le (mx)^{-1}$, where $m$ is the proton mass and $x$ is the Bjorken $x$. The central charge $c$ of Lipatov's spin chain is determined here to be $c=1$; using the proposed relation between the entanglement entropy and parton distributions, this corresponds to the gluon structure function growing at small $x$ as $xG(x) \sim 1/x^{1/3}$.

A falling magnetic monopole as a holographic local quench

An analytic static monopole solution is found in global AdS4, in the limit of small backreaction. This solution is mapped in Poincaré patch to a falling monopole configuration, which is dual to a local quench triggered by the injection of a condensate. Choosing boundary conditions which are dual to a time-independent Hamiltonian, we find the same functional form of the energy-momentum tensor as the one of a quench dual to a falling black hole. On the contrary, the details of the spread of entanglement entropy are very different from the falling black hole case, where the quench induces always a higher entropy compared to the vacuum, i.e. ∆S > 0. In the propagation of entanglement entropy for the monopole quench, there is instead a competition between a negative contribution to ∆S due to the scalar condensate and a positive one carried by the freely propagating quasiparticles generated by the energy injection.

Holographic local quench at finite chemical potential

Holographic local quench at finite chemical potential

Design and Characteristic Analysis of a Homopolar Synchronous Machine Using a NI HTS Field Coil

This paper deals with a homopolar synchronous machine (HSM) applying high-temperature superconducting (HTS) field coils. Superconductors, especially high-temperature superconductors, have high potential as advanced materials for next-generation electrical machines due to their high critical current density and excellent mechanical strength. However, coils made with high-temperature superconductors have a high risk of being damaged in the event of a quench due to the intrinsic low normal zone propagation velocity (NZPV). Therefore, the coil protection issue has been regarded as one of the most important research fields in HTS coil applications. Currently, the most actively studied method for quench protection of the HTS coils is the no-insulation (NI) winding technique. The NI winding technique is a method of winding an HTS coil without inserting an insulating material between turns. This method can automatically bypass the current to the adjacent turn when a local quench occurs inside the HTS coil, greatly improving the operating stability of the HTS coils. Accordingly, many institutions are conducting research to develop advanced electrical machines using NI HTS coils. However, the NI HTS coil has its intrinsic charge/discharge delay problem, which makes it difficult to successfully develop electrical machines using the NI HTS coil. In this study, we investigated how this charging/discharging problem appeared when the NI HTS coil was used in an HTS homopolar synchronous machine (HSM) which is one of the electrical machines with a high possibility of applying the HTS coil in the future because it has a stationary field coil structure. For this, the characteristic resistances of HTS coils were experimentally obtained and applied to the simulation model.

Subsystem complexity after a local quantum quench

We study the temporal evolution of the circuit complexity after the local quench where two harmonic chains are suddenly joined, choosing the initial state as the reference state. We discuss numerical results for the complexity for the entire chain and the subsystem complexity for a block of consecutive sites, obtained by exploiting the Fisher information geometry of the covariance matrices. The qualitative behaviour of the temporal evolutions of the subsystem complexity depends on whether the joining point is inside the subsystem. The revivals and a logarithmic growth observed during these temporal evolutions are discussed. When the joining point is outside the subsystem, the temporal evolutions of the subsystem complexity and of the corresponding entanglement entropy are qualitatively similar.

Many-body wavefunctions for quantum impurities out of equilibrium

We present a method for calculating the time-dependent many-body wavefunction that follows a local quench. We apply the method to the voltage-driven nonequilibrium Kondo model to find the exact time-evolving wavefunction following a quench where the dot is suddenly attached to the leads at $t=0$. The method, which does not use Bethe ansatz, also works in other quantum impurity models (we include results for the interacting resonant level and the Anderson impurity model) and may be of wider applicability. In the particular case of the Kondo model, we show that the long-time limit (with the system size taken to infinity first) of the time-evolving wavefunction is a current-carrying nonequilibrium steady state that satisfies the Lippmann-Schwinger equation. We show that the electric current in the time-evolving wavefunction is given by a series expression that can be expanded either in weak coupling or in strong coupling, converging to all orders in the steady-state limit in either case. The series agrees to leading order with known results in the well-studied regime of weak antiferromagnetic coupling and also reveals another universal regime of strong ferromagnetic coupling, with Kondo temperature $T_K^{(F)} = D e^{-\frac{3\pi^2}{8} \rho |J|}$ ($J<0$, $\rho|J|\to\infty$). In this regime, the differential conductance $dI/dV$ reaches the unitarity limit $2e^2/h$ asymptotically at large voltage or temperature.

Many-body wavefunctions for quantum impurities out of equilibrium. I. The nonequilibrium Kondo model

We present here the details of a method [A. B. Culver and N. Andrei, Phys. Rev. B 103, L201103 (2021)] for calculating the time-dependent many-body wavefunction that follows a local quench. We apply the method to the voltage-driven nonequilibrium Kondo model to find the exact time-evolving wavefunction following a quench where the dot is suddenly attached to the leads at $t=0$. The method, which does not use Bethe ansatz, also works in other quantum impurity models and may be of wider applicability. We show that the long-time limit (with the system size taken to infinity first) of the time-evolving wavefunction of the Kondo model is a current-carrying nonequilibrium steady state that satisfies the Lippmann-Schwinger equation. We show that the electric current in the time-evolving wavefunction is given by a series expression that can be expanded either in weak coupling or in strong coupling, converging to all orders in the steady-state limit in either case. The series agrees to leading order with known results in the well-studied regime of weak antiferromagnetic coupling and also reveals a universal regime of strong ferromagnetic coupling with Kondo temperature $T_K^{(F)} = D e^{-\frac{3\pi^2}{8} \rho |J|}$ ($J<0$, $\rho|J|\to\infty$). In this regime, the differential conductance $dI/dV$ reaches the unitarity limit $2e^2/h$ asymptotically at large voltage or temperature.

Startup and Quench Electromagnetic Simulation of a Bitter Plate TF Coil Concept For the Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF)

Current distributions during startup and quench of very large reactor relevant coil systems will vary significantly from the smaller prototype magnets. A reactor scale simulation is needed. In this study, the FNSF magnet from the 2017 study is used as an example of a full sized reactor. The intent of the study is to investigate use of HTS conductors in the FNSF and how sizing and performance might be affected. A pancake or Bitter magnet like winding pattern is investigated to allow inductive and resistive redistribution of currents. A portion of the winding pack retains some resistivity to aid in redistribution of current during a transient or quench. Resistive materials can be used to support energy absorption for stability or to provide partial current dump capability during a quench, however, the primary quench mitigation mechanism is inductive redistribution of currents around the quench zone. In this implementation, the Bitter plate is both structural - similar to radial plates in ITER and electrical, intended, to limit current concentration during ramp-up. Use of localized resistors and parallel current paths are used to encourage more uniform startup currents. The analysis is a transient electromagnetic simulation using ANSYS. It is a cyclic symmetry modeling of an individual plate and is limited by the assumption that a local quench is repeated by the cyclic symmetry. This is a concession to the model size. Results are discussed in the context of performance needed for the FNSF.

Zero-bias current induced by periodic drive of arbitrary shape

We investigate time-dependent electron current through a quantum dot under external drive (pulses), coupled to leads at zero bias. Simple analytic expressions for current, generated by periodic pulses of any shape, are obtained without any use of the Floquet expansion. We demonstrate that the current, follows a local quench, displays the transient and steady-state behavior, which are described by the same universal function of an external drive. The results are applied for an analysis of the current generated by rectangular and linear form pulses, in comparison with ultra-fast pulses of very high amplitude. Our results are also applicable for study of On-Demand Single-Electron sources and laser-driven junctions.

The quasi-particle picture and its breakdown after local quenches: mutual information, negativity, and reflected entropy

We study the dynamics of (Rényi) mutual information, logarithmic negativity, and (Rényi) reflected entropy after exciting the ground state by a local operator. Together with recent results from ref. [1], we are able to conjecture a close-knit structure between the three quantities that emerges in states excited above the vacuum, including both local and global quantum quenches. This structure intimately depends on the chaoticity of the theory i.e. there exist distinct sets of equivalences for integrable and chaotic theories. For rational conformal field theories (RCFT), we find all quantities to compute the quantum dimension of the primary operator inserted. In contrast, we find the correlation measures to grow (logarithmically) without bound in all c > 1 conformal field theories with a finite twist gap. In comparing the calculations in the two classes of theories, we are able to identify the dynamical mechanism for the breakdown of the quasi-particle picture in 2D conformal field theories. Intriguingly, we also find preliminary evidence that our general lessons apply to quantum systems considerably distinct from conformal field theories, such as integrable and chaotic spin chains, suggesting a universality of entanglement dynamics in non-equilibrium systems.

Bubble quenches in the AdS/BCFT model

In this paper we construct time-dependent solutions of three-dimensional gravity in anti--de Sitter space dual to systems with boundaries (BCFTs), following the AdS/BCFT prescription. Such solutions can be discussed in the context of the dynamics of first-order phase transitions, or more generally, in the description of quantum quenches. As an example, we apply the holographic model to calculate the dynamics of the entanglement entropy of a local quench corresponding to a nucleation of a Euclidean bubble. As in the known $1+1$ conformal field theory examples of local cut and glue quenches, the holographic entanglement entropy grows logarithmically with time with the correct universal coefficient. However, in the bubble quench, the behavior is different at late times. The AdS/BCFT model exhibits the light-cone spreading of correlations and saturation at late times. We also find an analytical formula for the entropy at finite temperature. In the latter case, the initial logarithmic growth is followed by the linear law at intermediate times.

Abnormality Monitoring for Three-Phase HTS Cable via Time-Frequency Domain Reflectometry

With the advent of commercialization in high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable systems, maintenance techniques for the HTS cable systems are required. In the HTS cable systems, which must maintain the superconducting state during the operation, real-time monitoring is essential. Therefore, in this paper, a monitoring technique for three-phase HTS cables is proposed. The proposed technique, which is based on time-frequency domain reflectometry, has an efficient instrument configuration compared to conventional techniques. Also, by extracting a feature in the time-frequency domain of the monitoring signals, abnormal phase in a three-phase HTS cable can be identified. The proposed technique is demonstrated by experimental data using a real-world three-phase HTS cable. In order to simulate a local quench in the operation of three-phase HTS cable systems, heating elements are utilized in the experimental setup. It is expected that the proposed technique will improve reliability in operating the three-phase HTS cable systems.

Signature of Generalized Gibbs Ensemble Deviation from Equilibrium: Negative Absorption Induced by a Local Quench

When a parameter quench is performed in an isolated quantum system with a complete set of constants of motion, its out of equilibrium dynamics is considered to be well captured by the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE), characterized by a set of coefficients related to the constants of motion. We determine the most elementary GGE deviation from the equilibrium distribution that leads to detectable effects. By quenching a suitable local attractive potential in a one-dimensional electron system, the resulting GGE differs from equilibrium by only one single , corresponding to the emergence of an only partially occupied bound state lying below a fully occupied continuum of states. The effect is shown to induce optical gain, i.e., a negative peak in the absorption spectrum, indicating the stimulated emission of radiation, enabling one to identify GGE signatures in fermionic systems through optical measurements. We discuss the implementation in realistic setups.

Dynamics of entanglement wedge cross section from conformal field theories

We derive dynamics of the entanglement wedge cross section directly from the two-dimensional holographic CFTs with a local operator quench. This derivation is based on the reflected entropy, a correlation measure for mixed states. We further compare these results with the mutual information and ones for integrable systems. This comparison directly suggests the classical correlation plays an important role in chaotic systems, unlike integrable ones. Besides a local operator quench, we study the reflected entropy in heavy primary states and find a breaking of the subsystem ETH. We checked the above results also hold for the odd entanglement entropy, which is another measure for mixed states related to the entanglement wedge cross section.

Time-dependent variational principle for mixed matrix product states in the thermodynamic limit

We describe a time evolution algorithm for quantum spin chains whose Hamiltonians are composed of an infinite uniform left and right bulk part, and an arbitrary finite region in between. The left and right bulk parts are allowed to be different from each other. The algorithm is based on the time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) of matrix product states. It is inversion-free and very simple to adapt from an existing TDVP code for finite systems. The importance of working in the projective Hilbert space is highlighted. We study the quantum Ising model as a benchmark and an illustrative example. The spread of information after a local quench is studied in both the ballistic and the diffusive case. We also offer a derivation of TDVP directly from symplectic geometry.