A double SQUID manipulated by fast magnetic flux pulses can be used as a tunable flux qubit. In this paper we study the requirements for the qubit operation and evaluate the dissipation and decoherence due to the manipulation, with particular attention to the contribution related to the applied...

The dynamical properties of symmetric quantum interferometers with equal junctions of negligible capacitance have been studied by means of perturbation analysis in the limit of small values of the parameter β. In this limit, two characteristic time constants arise. These quantities may be...

A scheme of magnetic calorimeter for registration of rare events characterized by small energy release (cosmic rays, WIMPs, solitary X-ray quanta) is proposed. The calorimeter is brought to operation by adiabatic demagnetization, and its magnetic response is measured by a quantum interferometer...

We describe properties of a quantum system prepared in a superposition of N displaced number states, with emphasis on the interference effects among the state components. Explicit expressions for wavefunctions in the coordinate and Fock-state representations, photon number distribution,...