A conformal field theory description of magnetic flux fractionalization in Josephson junction ladders

We show how the recently proposed effective theory for a Quantum Hall system at “paired states” filling ν=1 [1,2], the twisted model (TM), well adapts to describe the phenomenology of Josephson Junction ladders (JJL) in the presence of defects. In particular it is shown how naturally the phenomenon of flux fractionalization takes place in such a description and its relation with the discrete symmetries present in the TM. Furthermore we focus on “closed” geometries, which enable us to analyze the topological properties of the ground state of the system in relation to the presence of half flux quanta. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2006