Fully frustrated Josephson junction ladders with Mobius boundary conditions as topologically protected qubits

We show how to realize a “protected” qubit by using a fully frustrated Josephson junction ladder (JJL) with Mobius boundary conditions. Such a system has been recently studied within a twisted conformal field theory (CFT) approach [G. Cristofano, G. Maiella, V. Marotta, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 15 (2000) 1679; G. Cristofano, G. Maiella, V. Marotta, G. Niccoli, Nucl. Phys. B 641 (2002) 547] and shown to develop the phenomenon of flux fractionalization [G. Cristofano, V. Marotta, A. Naddeo, G. Niccoli, Eur. Phys. J. B 49 (2006) 83]. The relevance of a “closed” geometry has been fully exploited in relating the topological properties of the ground state of the system to the presence of half flux quanta and the emergence of a topological order has been predicted [G. Cristofano, V. Marotta, A. Naddeo, J. Stat. Mech.: Theory Exp. (2005) P03006]. In this Letter the stability and transformation properties of the ground states under adiabatic magnetic flux change are analyzed and the deep consequences on the realization of a solid state qubit, protected from decoherence, are presented.