Character of ground state of an aperiodic frustrated Josephson junction array

Abstract: We study the energy spectrum for an aperiodic Josephson junction ladder, as a function of frustration. Frustration is brought about by application of a transverse magnetic field, and aperiodicity is imposed by the arrangement of plaquettes with two incommensurate areas. We study the effect of the incommensurate plaquette areas in conjunction with that of the aperiodicity. The structure of the energy spectrum at deep minima is shown to be described by a model that treats the plaquettes independently. The energy spectrum is a quasiperiodic function of frustration; short range correlations in the arrangement of plaquettes have a small effect on the energy power spectrum.