Meissner effect in a bosonic ladder - art. no. 144515

We investigate the effect of a magnetic field on a bosonic ladder. We show that such a system leads to the one-dimensional equivalent of a vortex latt ice in a superconductor. We investigate the physical properties of the vort ex phase, such as vortex density and vortex correlation functions, and show that magnetization has plateaus for some commensurate values of the magnet ic field. The lowest plateau corresponds to a true Meissner to vortex trans ition at a critical field H-c1 that exists although the system has no long- range superconducting order, Implications for experimental realizations suc h as Josephson-junction arrays are discussed.