Field theoretic description of the Abelian and non-Abelian Josephson effect

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Jun 15;98(24):241602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.241602. Epub 2007 Jun 15.

Abstract

We formulate the Josephson effect in a field theoretic language which affords a straightforward generalization to the non-Abelian case. Our formalism interprets Josephson tunneling as the excitation of pseudo Goldstone bosons. We demonstrate the formalism through the consideration of a single junction separating two regions with a purely non-Abelian order parameter and a sandwich of three regions where the central region is in a distinct phase. Applications to various non-Abelian symmetry breaking systems in particle and condensed matter physics are given.