Canonical quantization of telegrapher’s equations coupled by ideal circulators

We develop a systematic procedure to quantize canonically Hamiltonians of light-matter models of transmission lines point-wise coupled through linear lossless ideal circulators in a circuit QED set-up. This is achieved through a description in terms of both flux and charge fields. This apparent redundancy allows the derivation of the relevant Hamiltonian. By making use of the electromagnetic duality symmetry proper to the case at hand we provide unambiguous identification of the physical degrees of freedom, separating out the nondynamical parts. Furthermore, this doubled description is amenable to a treatment of other pointwise contacts that is regular and presents no spurious divergences, as we show explicitly in the example of a circulator connected to a Josephson junction through a transmission line. This theory enhances the quantum engineering toolbox to design complex networks with nonreciprocal elements.