Theory for collective macroscopic tunneling in high-Tc intrinsic Josephson junctions

On the basis of the theory for the capacitive coupling in intrinsic Josephson junctions (IJJ's), we theoretically study the macroscopic quantum tunneling in the switching dynamics into the voltage states in IJJ. The effective action obtained by using the path integral formalism reveals that the capacitive coupling splits each of the lowest and higher quantum levels, which are given inside Josephson potential barrier of the single junction derived by dropping off the coupling, into levels composed of the number of junction (N). This level splitting can cause multiple low-frequency Rabi-oscillations and enhance the switching probability compared to the conventional Caldeira-Leggett theory. Furthermore, a possibility as a naturally built-in multi-qubit is discussed.