Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits

Alternative computing paradigms open the door to exploiting recent innovations in computational hardware to probe the fundamental thermodynamic limits of information processing. One such paradigm employs superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) to execute classical computations. This, t...

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Main Authors: Christian Z. Pratt, Kyle J. Ray, James P. Crutchfield
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2025-01-01
Series:Physical Review Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013014
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author Christian Z. Pratt
Kyle J. Ray
James P. Crutchfield
author_facet Christian Z. Pratt
Kyle J. Ray
James P. Crutchfield
author_sort Christian Z. Pratt
collection DOAJ
description Alternative computing paradigms open the door to exploiting recent innovations in computational hardware to probe the fundamental thermodynamic limits of information processing. One such paradigm employs superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) to execute classical computations. This, though, requires constructing sufficiently complex superconducting circuits that support a suite of useful information processing tasks and storage operations, as well as understanding these circuits' energetics. First-principles circuit design leads to prohibitive algebraic complications when deriving the effective equations of motion—complications that to date have precluded achieving these goals, let alone doing so efficiently. We circumvent these complications by (i) specializing our class of circuits and physical operating regimes, (ii) synthesizing existing derivation techniques to suit these specializations, and (iii) implementing solution-finding optimizations which facilitate physically interpreting circuit degrees of freedom that respect physically grounded constraints. This leads to efficient and practical circuit prototyping, as well as accessing scalable circuit architectures. The analytical efficiency is demonstrated by reproducing the potential energy landscape generated by a SQUID. We then show how inductively coupling two SQUIDs produces a device that is capable of executing two-bit computations via its composite potential energy landscape. More generally, the synthesized methods detailed here provide a basis for constructing universal logic gates and investigating their thermodynamic performance.
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spelling doaj-art-a74268a9fb974fa5bce322fbd4e7c9fa2025-01-06T16:56:20ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642025-01-017101301410.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013014Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuitsChristian Z. PrattKyle J. RayJames P. CrutchfieldAlternative computing paradigms open the door to exploiting recent innovations in computational hardware to probe the fundamental thermodynamic limits of information processing. One such paradigm employs superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) to execute classical computations. This, though, requires constructing sufficiently complex superconducting circuits that support a suite of useful information processing tasks and storage operations, as well as understanding these circuits' energetics. First-principles circuit design leads to prohibitive algebraic complications when deriving the effective equations of motion—complications that to date have precluded achieving these goals, let alone doing so efficiently. We circumvent these complications by (i) specializing our class of circuits and physical operating regimes, (ii) synthesizing existing derivation techniques to suit these specializations, and (iii) implementing solution-finding optimizations which facilitate physically interpreting circuit degrees of freedom that respect physically grounded constraints. This leads to efficient and practical circuit prototyping, as well as accessing scalable circuit architectures. The analytical efficiency is demonstrated by reproducing the potential energy landscape generated by a SQUID. We then show how inductively coupling two SQUIDs produces a device that is capable of executing two-bit computations via its composite potential energy landscape. More generally, the synthesized methods detailed here provide a basis for constructing universal logic gates and investigating their thermodynamic performance.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013014
spellingShingle Christian Z. Pratt
Kyle J. Ray
James P. Crutchfield
Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
Physical Review Research
title Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
title_full Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
title_fullStr Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
title_full_unstemmed Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
title_short Extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
title_sort extracting equations of motion from superconducting circuits
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013014
work_keys_str_mv AT christianzpratt extractingequationsofmotionfromsuperconductingcircuits
AT kylejray extractingequationsofmotionfromsuperconductingcircuits
AT jamespcrutchfield extractingequationsofmotionfromsuperconductingcircuits