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Letter

Nature Physics 2, 169–172 (1 March 2006) | doi:10.1038/nphys234

Superconducting nanowires as quantum phase-slip junctions

J. E. Mooij & Yu. V. Nazarov

For a superconductor, charge and phase are dual quantum variables. A phase-slip event in a superconducting nanowire changes the phase difference over the wire by 2|[pi]|; it is the dual process to Cooper-pair tunnelling in a Josephson junction.