Universal conductance of nanowires near the superconductor-metal quantum transition
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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform
Published on: August 2, 2019
Subir Sachdev1, Philipp Werner, Matthias Troyer
1Department of Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208120, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8120, USA.
Abstract:
We consider wires near a zero temperature transition between superconducting and metallic states. The critical theory obeys hyperscaling, which leads to a universal frequency, temperature, and length dependence of the conductance; quantum and thermal phase slips are contained within this critical theory. Normal, superconducting, and mixed (SN) leads on the wire determine distinct universality classes. For the SN case, wires near the critical point have a universal dc conductance which is independent of the length of the wire at low temperatures.
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