Circuit quantization with time-dependent flux:the parallel-plate SQUID

Abstract: Quantum circuit theory has emerged as an essential tool for the study of the dynamics of superconducting circuits. Recently, the problem of accounting for time-dependent driving via external magnetic fields was addressed by Riwar-DiVincenzo in their paper - 'Circuit quantization with time-dependent magnetic fields for realistic geometries' in which they proposed a technique to construct a low-energy Hamiltonian for a given circuit geometry, taking as input the external magnetic field interacting with the geometry. This result generalises previous efforts that dealt only with discrete circuits. Moreover, it shows through the example of a parallel-plate SQUID circuit that assigning individual, discrete capacitances to each individual Josephson junction, as proposed by treatments of discrete circuits, is only possible if we allow for negative, time-dependent and even singular capacitances. In this report, we provide numerical evidence to substantiate this result by performing finite-difference simulations on a parallel-plate SQUID. We furnish continuous geometries with a uniform magnetic field whose distribution we vary such that the capacitances that are to be assigned to each Josephson junction must be negative and even singular. Thus, the necessity for time-dependent capacitances for appropriate quantization emerges naturally when we allow the distribution of the magnetic field to change with time.