# Superfluid Flow Past an Array of Scatterers

## I Introduction

The problem of nonlinear flow, as modeled by a nonlinear Schrodinger equation in the presence of a scattering potential, relates to a variety of physical situations. One example is a weakly interacting Bose gas with impurities, while another is a Josephson array in a regime appropriate to a Ginzburg-Landau formulation. Here, the array consists of short, normal-metal (N) regions in the presence of a Hartree electron-electron interaction, and embedded within a superconducting wire near its critical temperature, $`T_c`$. The latter example falls within the rapidly developing field of study of the interplay of the proximity effect and charging effects due to interactions in disordered, inhomogeneous superconducting systems . Further examples arise within nonlinear optics  and in the study of gravity waves on deep water .

We will concern ourselves with the existence of time-independent solutions of the flow equations in the presence of a supercurrent. In general the value of the supercurrent is limited by a maximum value, the critical current, above which the flow becomes unsteady and a time-dependent solution must be sought. Recently Hakim  considered the superfluid flow past a single, repulsive scatterer in one dimension and deduced the dependence of the critical current on the scattering strength. We extend this model to the geometry of a regular array of scatterers. We find a rich dependence of the critical current on the scatterer separation and strength, with markedly different behaviour in the cases of repulsive and attractive scatterers.

Although we will focus here on the steady-state flow, the physics of unsteady flows in related problems has also received attention. For instance, unsteady flow past a single scatterer in one dimension  represents a transition state towards the emission of solitons and hence phase-slip nucleation. It has also been pointed out  that steady-state flow may not be stable to mechanisms of quantum tunnelling, leading to phase-slip nucleation and non-zero dissipation even below the (quasiclassical) critical current. Higher dimensional analogues of the problem are also of theoretical and experimental importance, although less tractable analytically: recent work has simulated numerically the flow of a superfluid past an obstacle  or through a constriction  in two dimensions, for which vortices are nucleated above the critical supercurrent. These investigations relate directly to experimental work  on superfluid <sup>4</sup>He.

As mentioned above, an important application of this model is in the description of supercurrent flow in a mesoscopic SNS device near the critical temperature of the S region. The Ginzburg-Landau equations for the order parameter near the critical temperature of such a device are equivalent to the flow equations for a superfluid in the Hartree approximation. Furthermore, a short N region may be modelled as a point-like scatterer whose strength diverges as $`T_c`$ is approached and the Ginzburg-Landau correlation length diverges. We will exploit this equivalence to translate our results directly into experimental predictions for the temperature dependence of the critical current of a Josephson array, consisting of short N regions embedded in a superconducting wire near $`T_c`$.

The dependence of the critical current on the temperature is a property that has already been examined in a number of related systems. For example, it is an established result  that a superconducting wire (with no N regions) has a critical current that behaves as $`(T_cT)^{3/2}`$ as $`T_c`$ is approached, while the introduction of a single, short N region leads to a critical current that depends quadratically as $`(T_cT)^2`$ . In addition it has been possible to fabricate and measure experimentally a superconducting ‘microladder’ , consisting of a pair of S wires with connecting side-branches: in this geometry, a well-defined correction to the $`(T_cT)^{3/2}`$ dependance of the critical current of the superconducting wire has been observed and explained theoretically. Courtois et al.  have also measured the critical current for another geometry (somewhat complementary to that considered by us) of an array of short S regions near $`T_c`$ within a N metal, again with a reasonable fit to the theory .

The case of two short N regions, comprising a double-barrier structure, has also been examined theoretically, by Zapata and Sols . They interpret such a system as representing a nonlinear analogue of resonant tunnelling: such a scattering structure is well known in a linear system to lead to phenonema such as the sensitivity of the transmission coefficient to the scatterer separation, peaking near well-defined resonances due to multiple inner reflection. The introduction of nonlinearity leads immediately to markedly different behaviour, the added complexity precluding even any kind of crossover regime in terms of a nonlinearity parameter. The critical current of the double-barrier structure depends as $`(T_c^{}T)^{1/2}`$, where $`T_c^{}`$ is some temperature below $`T_c`$.

For the geometry of an array of short N regions embedded within a superconducting wire, we find a linear dependence of the critical current as $`𝒜(T_cT)`$, in contrast to the cases described above. Furthermore, the coefficient $`𝒜`$ depends sensitively on the sizes of the S and N regions and the strength and sign of the electron interaction. The calculation of the chemical potential, while trivial in the geometry of a finite number of scatterers, becomes more complex in the array geometry, and follows by the incorporation of a normalization condition to fix the total boson number. This procedure leads to the increased complexity of the flow solutions.

We find a further feature in the temperature dependence of the critical current in the case of an attractive interaction: the critical current vanishes linearly at some temperature $`T^{}`$ less than $`T_c`$, as well as at $`T_c`$ itself. We will rule out a simple explanation for the zero value of the critical current at this temperature, $`T^{}`$, in terms of order-parameter fluctuations at vanishingly low frequencies.

The plan of this paper is as follows. In Section II, we describe the model and flow equations for a superfluid in the presence of scatterers. In Section III we review briefly the solution of these equations for a single scatterer in the time-independent regime. In Section IV we address the geometry of an array of scatterers and present the results for the critical current as a function of scatterer strength and separation. In Section V we derive analytically the form of the critical current in the various limiting cases of scatterer strength and separation, while in Section VI we translate these results into predictions for the temperature dependence of a Josephson array near $`T_c`$. Section VII includes a discussion on order-parameter fluctuations at the special separation value of $`L=2|g|`$, at which the critical current vanishes, and Section VIII concludes with a summary.

## II Model

We derive the relevant equations first for the problem of a one-dimensional superfluid in the presence of delta-function scatterers. Taking the scatterers to have strength $`g_\alpha `$ and positions $`r_\alpha `$, the Hamiltonian may be written

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}_{x_i}^2+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}g_\alpha \delta (x_ir_\alpha )\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{ik}{}}\delta (x_ix_k),`$ (1)   
where $`i`$ labels the $`N`$ bosons, which interact via a short-ranged, pairwise potential of strength $`\lambda `$. We employ the Hartree approximation  to write the ground state wavefunction in the symmetrised form,

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(x_1,x_2,\mathrm{},x_N,t)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{_{sys}^{N/2}}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\psi (x_i,t),`$   
where $`_{sys}`$ is the system size. This leads to the following nonlinear Schrodinger equation for $`\psi (x,t)`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_x^2\psi +|\psi |^2\psi +{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}g_\alpha \delta (xr_\alpha )\psi =i_t\psi ,`$ (2)   
where we have rescaled length according to units of the healing length, $`\mathrm{}_h=\mathrm{}/(\lambda nm)^{1/2}`$, and energy (and the $`g_\alpha `$) according to units of the Hartree energy, $`n\lambda `$, where $`n`$ is the average particle density. The speed of sound in the condensate in the absence of the scatterers, ie. $`(n\lambda /m)^{1/2}`$, is equal to unity with this choice of units.

In addition, we must enforce the condition of fixed total boson number, which is achieved by normalizing the wavefunction according to

$`{\displaystyle |\psi |^2(x)𝑑x}=_{sys}.`$ (3)   
We now introduce the number-phase representation (the Madelung transformation ):

$`\psi (x,t)=\sqrt{\rho (x,t)}\mathrm{exp}(iS(x,t)).`$ (4)   
Inserting eqn. (4) into the Schrodinger equation, eqn. (2), gives the continuity equation and the Bernouilli equation respectively,

$`_t\rho +_x(\rho _xS)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (5)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{_x^2\sqrt{\rho }}{\sqrt{\rho }}}+_tS+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_xS)^2+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}g_\alpha \delta (xr_\alpha )+\rho `$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (6)   
while the normalization condition, (3), becomes

$`{\displaystyle \rho (x)𝑑x}=_{\mathrm{sys}}.`$ (7)   
For time-independent flow, we may set $`_t\rho `$ to zero, while the phase $`S(t)`$ advances uniformly in time according to the Josephson relation, $`_tS=\mu `$, where $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential. The continuity equation, eqn. (5), then integrates to

$`\rho _xS=j,`$ (8)   
where $`j`$, a constant, is the supercurrent density. Writing $`\varphi (x)=\rho (x)^{1/2}`$, the flow equation, eqn. (6), becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_x^2\varphi +\varphi ^3\mu \varphi +{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}g_\alpha \delta (xr_\alpha )\varphi +{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{2\varphi ^3}}=0.`$ (9)   
We will discuss the solution of this equation at length in the following sections. We see that it is of a general Ginzburg-Landau form, as we clarify further in section VI. We consider first the case of a single scatterer before turning to an array of scatterers.

## III Single Scatterer

In this section we review the results for the critical current of a single scatterer . We take the scatterer to be of strength $`g`$ and placed at a position $`x=0`$. The flow eqn. (9) gives the jump condition

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[_x\varphi \right]_0^{}^{0^+}=g\varphi (0).`$ (10)   
In addition, from the normalization condition, eqn. (7), we enforce that

$`\varphi (x)1\mathrm{as}x\mathrm{}.`$ (11)   
From eqn. (11) and the flow equation, eqn. (9), we find the chemical potential immediately as

$`\mu =1+{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{2}}.`$   
With the above relations, the flow equation may be integrated as follows:

$`\begin{array}{cccc}\hfill \rho (x)& =& j^2+(1j^2)\left\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{tanh}^2\\ \mathrm{coth}^2\end{array}\right\}\left[\sqrt{1j^2}|x|+\alpha \right],\hfill & \hfill \{\begin{array}{c}g>0,\\ g<0.\end{array}\end{array}`$ (17)   
The integration constant, $`\alpha `$, still needs to be determined from the jump condition, (10). For an attractive impurity, $`g<0`$, the jump condition may be fulfilled for all values of the supercurrent up to the speed of sound, $`j1`$. This is connected to the fact that the value of $`\rho `$ at the impurity ($`\rho (0)`$) may become arbitrarily large. Thus the critical current for a single impurity, $`j_{c,0}`$, is in this case

$`j_{c,0}(g<0)=1.`$   
In contrast, for a repulsive impurity, $`g>0`$, the jump condition can no longer be satisfied for all $`j`$ up to 1, due to the restriction that $`0\rho (0)1`$. Instead we have that $`j_{c,0}(g>0)<1`$. Although Hakim  obtained an implicit formula for the critical current, we obtain in Appendix A a relatively simple explicit formula. The resulting dependence of $`j_{c,0}(g)`$ on $`g`$ is illustrated in figure 1. In the limits of large and small scattering strength, $`g`$, we have

$`j_{c,0}(g>0)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1/(2g),& g1,\\ 1\frac{3}{4}(2g^2)^{1/3},& g1.\end{array}`$ (20)   
Note that the result for large $`g`$ will find relevance in section VI when we examine the equivalent problem of the critical current in an SNS junction (with a single normal-metal region) close to the critical temperature. Before elaborating on this interpretation, we keep to the example of a superfluid, and turn to the case of a periodic array of scatterers.

## IV Array of Scatterers

We now examine the case of a periodic array of scatterers, of equal strength $`g`$ and separation $`L`$. We place them at positions $`r_\alpha =(2\alpha +1)L/2`$, so that $`\varphi (x)`$ is symmetric about $`x=0`$ and we may restrict attention to $`|x|<L/2`$. We first show how the flow equations may be integrated before discussing the results of their full solution.

### A Integration of the Flow Equations

The first integral of the flow equation, (9), may be written as follows:

$`(_x\varphi )^2=\varphi ^42\mu \varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\varphi ^2}}\varphi (0)^4+2\mu \varphi (0)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\varphi (0)^2}}.`$   
We may now factorize the right-hand side of this expression: this operation greatly simplifies the following analysis. We find

$`(_x\varphi )^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\varphi ^2}}(\varphi ^2\varphi (0)^2)(\varphi ^2\alpha )(\varphi ^2\beta ),`$ (21)   
where

$`\left\{\begin{array}{c}\alpha \\ \beta \end{array}\right\}=\mu {\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)}{2}}\pm \left[\left(\mu {\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)}{2}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\rho (0)}}\right]^{1/2}.`$ (24)   
This leads to the following solution for $`\rho (x)`$:

$`\begin{array}{cc}\rho (x)=\beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\left\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{sn}^2\\ \frac{1}{k^2\mathrm{sn}^2}\end{array}\right\}(\sqrt{\alpha \beta }x+\mathrm{Re}K(k),k),\hfill & \hfill \{\begin{array}{c}g>0,\\ g<0,\end{array}\end{array}`$   
where the symmetry of $`\rho (x)`$ about the origin has been automatically incorporated, sn and $`K`$ are the elliptic integral and complete elliptic functions respectively , and

$`k=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)\beta }{\alpha \beta }}}.`$ (27)   
It still remains to determine the two integration constants, $`\mu `$ and $`\rho (0)`$. These are specified by the normalization condition corresponding to eqn. (7), that is,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{L}}{\displaystyle _0^{L/2}}\rho (x)𝑑x=1,`$ (28)   
and the jump condition,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[_x\varphi \right]_{(L/2)^{}}^{(L/2)^+}=g\varphi \left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}\right).`$ (29)   
The latter condition may be rewritten, using the first integral in eqn. (21), as follows:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\rho (0)\rho (L/2)}}=g^2{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (L/2)}{\rho (L/2)\rho (0)}}+2\mu \rho (L/2)\rho (0).`$ (30)   
This represents an implicit equation for $`j`$, since the right-hand side is dependent on $`j`$ through $`\mu `$ and $`\rho (0)`$. The problem of calculating the critical current of the array has now been reduced to finding the maximum value of $`j`$ for which the two conditions (28) and (30) may be satisfied simultaneously.

### B Results

Having described the integration of the flow equations, we present here the results for the critical current of the array. Further details of the working towards these results will be described in the following section.

It is clear that in the limit of $`L\mathrm{}`$, $`j_c`$ must approach its single-impurity value, $`j_{c,0}`$:

$`j_cj_{c,0}(g),L\mathrm{}.`$ (31)   
For general values of the parameters $`g`$ and $`L`$, the determination of $`j_c`$ must be performed numerically. Figure 2 shows $`j_c`$ as a function of $`L`$ for a typical repulsive and attractive case. We see that the correct behaviour is reproduced in the limit of $`L\mathrm{}`$. We also see that in the attractive case, the critical current vanishes altogether at one special value of $`L`$. We will show below that this value is given by $`L=2|g|`$. We also see that $`j_c`$ diverges at small $`L`$ in both the repulsive and attractive case.

In the limit of small scatterer separation, $`L0`$, we find further that $`j_c`$ satisfies the following scaling form:

$`j_c{\displaystyle \frac{1}{L}}f(gL),L0.`$ (32)   
The scaling function $`f`$ possesses a surprisingly nontrivial structure which we have obtained numerically and show in figure 3. Notice the marked difference in these forms for the repulsive and attractive cases. We see also that, with interpretation of this system as a superfluid as described in section II, the scaling variable $`|g|L`$ is unaffected by the energy and length rescaling (in units of the Hartree energy and healing length respectively) and hence of the boson interaction $`\lambda `$.

The limits of large and small separation needs a more precise definition, which in fact differs in the repulsive and attractive cases: the limits correspond to $`LL_0`$ and $`LL_0`$ respectively, where $`L_0=1`$ for the repulsive case and $`L_0=|g|`$ for the attractive case.

The scaling function $`f`$ will find direct relevance in the prediction for the temperature-dependence of the critical current of a Josephson array in section VI. In the following section, we will demonstrate analytically the following limiting behaviour of this function:

$`f(s,g>0)\{\begin{array}{cc}\pi ,& \hfill s1,\\ \frac{\pi ^2}{s},& \hfill s1,\end{array}`$ (35)   
and

$`f(s,g<0)\{\begin{array}{cc}\sqrt{2s},& \hfill s1,\\ 2s^2e^s,& \hfill s1.\end{array}`$ (38)   
The critical current $`j_c`$ for small $`L`$ then follows by $`s=|g|L`$ and the scaling relation (32). We will also show analytically that the critical current vanishes as the special point $`L=2|g|`$ is approached, in a linear fashion as $`j_c|L/2|g|1|`$.

## V Limiting Forms of the Solutions

In this section we derive analytically the limiting forms of the scaling function given by eqns. (35) and (38), and hence of the critical current at small separations. We take the repulsive case first, which requires the limit $`L1`$, and then the attractive case, which requires $`L|g|`$. Note that the condition itself for small separation is different in the repulsive and attractive cases. While staying within this condition, we will examine separately the subcases of $`|g|L1`$ and $`|g|L1`$.

In general, we find at such small separations the chemical potential approaches a large positive (negative) value in the repulsive (attractive) case, reflecting the large ‘potential energy’ of the scatterers. In addition, for small $`|g|L`$, the density $`\rho (x)`$ remains close to 1 for all values of $`x`$. In contrast, for large $`|g|L`$, the value of $`\rho (x)`$ approaches 2 at the origin and 0 at the scatterers for the repulsive case, and 0 at the origin and $`|g|L1`$ at the scatterers in the attractive case.

To derive the critical current, it is necessary to identify the somewhat subtle interplay of the various parameters of the problem, which requires a separate and quite different discussion for each of the four cases. We also include a discussion of the special points $`L=2|g|`$, at which the critical current vanishes entirely. Our approach in each case will be to indicate the existence of a local (rather than global) maximum in the supercurrent. Strictly speaking, we still need to justify these choices of a local maxima as the relevant values for the critical current. To do so, we appeal to the numerical results of section IV B which establish the smooth interpolation from the limit of small separation to large separation and hence to the single scatterer result for the critical current, which certainly does represent a global maximum.

### A Repulsive case at small separation ($`L1`$)

In the repulsive case, the limit of small separation requires that $`L1`$. We examine separately the subcases of $`gL1`$ and $`gL1`$, while staying within the limit of $`L1`$.

In both subcases, we have that $`\mu 1`$, and hence $`k1`$ by eqn. (27). The sn function is then well approximated by a standard cosine function:

$`\rho (x)=\beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\mathrm{cos}^2(\sqrt{2\mu }x),`$ (39)   
where $`\beta =j^2/(2\mu \rho (0))`$. We also have that $`\rho (x)`$ must contain no more than one half-oscillation between impurities, so that $`\sqrt{2\mu }L/2(0,\pi /2)`$. The normalization condition, eqn. (28) consequently simplifies to the form,

$`1=\beta +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\rho (0)\beta )\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\mu }L}}\mathrm{sin}(\sqrt{2\mu }L)\right].`$ (40)   
As shown in Appendix B, this limiting form leads to a critical current which behaves as $`j_c\pi /L`$ for $`gL1`$ and $`j_c\pi ^2/(gL^2)`$ for $`gL1`$ (while $`L1`$).

### B Attractive case at small separation ($`L|g|`$)

In the attractive case, the limit of small separation requires that $`L|g|`$. Note that this condition itself is separate from that in the repulsive case. Again, we will concern ourselves with the two subcases $`|g|L1`$ and $`|g|L1`$, while staying within $`L|g|`$. In both subcases, the chemical potential is large and negative: $`|\mu |1`$, $`\mu <0`$. The behaviour of $`k`$ however is different according to the limit of $`|g|L`$: we have $`k1`$ for $`|g|L1`$ but $`k1`$ for $`|g|L1`$. The sn function then reduces to either a cosine function or a tanh function:

$`\rho (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{cc}\beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\mathrm{sec}^2(\sqrt{\rho (0)\beta }x),& \hfill |g|L1,\\ \beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\mathrm{coth}^2(p\sqrt{\alpha \beta }x),& \hfill |g|L1,\end{array}`$ (43)   
$`p`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{8}{k1}}\right).`$ (44)   
Further details of the derivation of the critical current are contained in Appendix C: we find $`j_c(2|g|/L)^{1/2}`$ for $`|g|L1`$ and $`j_c2g^2L\mathrm{exp}(|g|L)`$ for $`|g|L1`$. This concludes the derivation of the behaviour of the critical current and hence the scaling function contained in eqns. (35) and (38).

### C Attractive case in the limit $`L2|g|`$

In this section, we consider the attractive case at separations near the special value, $`L=2|g|`$, at which the critical current vanishes entirely. This limit is characterized by a divergence in one of the parameters, namely $`k\mathrm{}`$. Consequently, $`\mu \rho (0)/2`$, and hence

$`\rho (x)\rho (0)\mathrm{sec}^2(\sqrt{\rho (0)}x),L2|g|.`$ (45)   
The normalization condition, eqn. (28), and the jump condition, eqn. (30), become equivalent in this limit, and simplify to:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}=\sqrt{\rho (0)}\mathrm{tan}\left[\sqrt{\rho (0)}{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}\right].`$ (46)   
Eqn. (46) for $`\rho (0)`$ is soluble for all values of $`L`$.

At this point it is still not obvious that the special point $`L=2|g|`$ does not admit a steady solution at any non-zero supercurrent. To demonstrate this fact, we consider the point $`L=2|g|(1+ϵ)`$ for some small $`ϵ`$ (positive or negative), and show that $`j_c`$ vanishes as $`|ϵ|0`$.

In this limit, we identify the small parameter $`\gamma =\mu \rho (0)/2`$, $`|\gamma |1`$. We will find $`\gamma `$ to be proportional to $`ϵ`$ at the critical current. Then

$`\begin{array}{c}\alpha \\ \beta \end{array}\}=\gamma \pm \left(\gamma ^2{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\rho (0)}}\right)^{1/2}.`$   
We find that $`k^2=\rho (0)/(2(\gamma \beta ))`$, and hence the limiting form for the density is

$`\rho (x)=\beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\mathrm{sec}^2\left[\sqrt{\rho (0)\beta }\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{(\gamma \beta )}{2\rho (0)}}\right)x\right].`$ (48)   
As we show in Appendix D, this limiting form leads to a critical current $`j_c`$ that vanishes linearly in $`|ϵ|`$ as claimed.

In section VII we will examine order parameter fluctuations, propagating as sound waves, at this separation $`L=2|g|`$. We will rule out the existence of such fluctuations at arbitrarily low frequencies as a simple explanation for the zero value of the critical current at this value of the separation. Instead we may view this effect as a consequence of the nonlinearity of the flow equations.

## VI Josephson Array near $`T_c`$

Having the determined the behaviour of the critical current for the periodic array of scatterers, we now show how these results may be translated directly in experimental predictions for the temperature dependence of the critical current of a Josephson array in a regime where a Ginzburg-Landau formulation is appropriate. Here, the array is near the critical temperature, $`T_c`$, of its S regions, and has the quasi-1D geometry shown in figure 4: the S regions are of length $`L_S`$ while the N regions are of length $`L_NL_S`$ and subject to a Hartree potential, $`V`$.

We first show that the Ginzburg-Landau equations for the array are of the same form as the flow equation, eqn. (9), for a superfluid. Furthermore, as shown by Zapata et al. , the short normal-metal regions, in the presence of the Hartee potential, may be mimicked by a series of repulsive or attractive delta-function scatterers, depending on the sign of the interaction $`V`$.

The Ginzburg-Landau equations for the order parameter $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x)`$ of the S region may be written as 

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}_x^2\mathrm{\Psi }+a(T)\mathrm{\Psi }+b|\mathrm{\Psi }|^2\mathrm{\Psi }=0,`$   
where $`a(T)`$ is negative and proportional to $`(T_cT)`$, $`b=2\pi \kappa ^2e^2\mathrm{}^2/m^2c^2`$ and $`\kappa `$ is the Ginzburg-Landau parameter. Writing $`\mathrm{\Psi }=|\psi |\mathrm{exp}(iS)`$ and defining the supercurrent (per unit of cross-sectional area) as $`j=(e\mathrm{}/m)|\psi |^2_xS`$, we have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{4m}}_x^2\psi +a(T)\psi +b\psi ^3+{\displaystyle \frac{mj^2}{4e^2\psi ^3}}=0.`$ (49)   
In addition to the above differential equation for $`\psi `$, we need to specify appropriate boundary conditions. In the absence of any N regions, the order parameter of the homogeneous superconductor, and hence condensate density, is fixed at the value $`\psi _S(T)`$. Furthermore, for a geometry containing only a single N region, the appropriate boundary condition is to set that $`\psi (x)`$ approaches $`\psi _S`$ for limiting values of $`x`$ far from the N region, by analogy with the boundary condition used in section III in considering a single scatterer. For an array, however, no such condition at infinity can apply; instead, we fix the total boson number at a certain temperature to equal that in the absence of the N regions. This gives the condition

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{L_S}}{\displaystyle _{L_S/2}^{L_S/2}}\psi (x)𝑑x=\psi _S,`$   
in similarity to the normalization condition, eqn. (28), of section IV. Here the integration extends over a single S region. To proceed, we rescale the position variable and current as follows:

$`y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{x}{\sqrt{2}\xi (T)}},`$ (50)   
$`j`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}\mathrm{}c^2}{16\pi \kappa ^2e\xi (T)^3}}J,`$ (51)   
where the coherence length is defined as

$`\xi (T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2(bm)^{1/2}\psi _S}}`$   
$`=`$ $`\xi _0^{}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{T}{T_c}}\right)^{1/2},`$   
and $`\xi _0^{}=0.74\xi _0`$ for a clean superconductor and $`\xi _0^{}=0.85\sqrt{\mathrm{}\xi _0}`$ for a dirty superconductor, where $`\xi _0`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ are the zero-temperature coherence length and mean free path respectively. In these rescaled variables, the Ginzburg-Landau equation, eqn. (49), becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_y^2\varphi \mu \varphi +\varphi ^3+{\displaystyle \frac{J^2}{2\varphi ^3}}=0,`$ (52)   
where $`\mu =|a|/(b\psi _{\mathrm{}}^2)`$. We see that for the geometry of a single N junction, the chemical potential becomes $`\mu =1+J^2/2`$. We also see that eqn. (52) reproduces the flow equation (9) as expected, together with the normalization condition (28).

Notice that the rescaling leads immediately, by eqn. (51), to a $`(T_cT)^{3/2}`$ dependence for the critical current of a S wire with no N regions, in accordance with established theory (see e.g. ). If we now include one or more short N regions, the flow equation in an N region in the rescaled variables, corresponding to eqn. (52), reads as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_y^2\varphi +\theta \varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{J^2}{2\varphi ^3}},`$ (53)   
where

$`\theta `$ $`=`$ $`V/(b\psi _S^2)`$   
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{sgn}(V){\displaystyle \frac{\xi (T)^2}{\xi _N^2}},`$   
and $`\xi _N^2=\mathrm{}^2/(4m|V|)`$ is the Ginzburg-Landau correlation length in the normal-metal. Following Ref. , we may now integrate trivially the flow equation (53) over the whole N region (located in $`y(y^{},y^+)`$, say) to give

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[_y\varphi \right]_y^{}^{y^+}={\displaystyle \frac{L_N}{\sqrt{2}\xi (T)}}\theta \varphi ,`$ (54)   
as long as

$`L_N\xi _N.`$   
Notice that we have dropped the current-dependent term on the right-hand side of eqn. (53) as is consistent for a sufficiently short N region near $`T_c`$ (see ). By identification of eqn. (54) with eqn. (29), we see that we may model the short N regions by delta-function scatterers of strength

$`g=\mathrm{sgn}(V){\displaystyle \frac{L_N\xi (T)}{\sqrt{2}\xi _N^2}}.`$ (55)   
At the same time, following the rescaling of the size of the S regions, $`L_S`$, under the transformation (50), we may also identify the scatterer separation as

$`L={\displaystyle \frac{L_S}{\sqrt{2}\xi (T)}}.`$ (56)   
By eqns. (55) and (56), we see that the limit of $`TT_c`$, and hence $`\xi (T)\mathrm{}`$, corresponds to taking $`g\mathrm{}`$ and $`L0`$ simultaneously, such that the product $`gL(=L_NL_S/(2\xi _N^2))`$ is fixed.

Given the above information we are now in a position to predict the temperature dependence of the critical current of the array. For orientation however we start with the simpler geometry of a single S-N-S junction with a repulsive interaction. As the temperature approaches $`T_c`$, $`g`$ diverges by eqn. (55) and we insert the large $`g`$ limit of the critical current for a single impurity, eqn. (20): $`J_c=1/(2g)`$. Relation (51) then gives the critical current of the SNS junction as

$`j_c(T)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}c^2\xi _N^2}{16\pi e\kappa ^2(\xi _0^{})^2L_N}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{T}{T_c}}\right)^2`$   
per unit area, ie. it varies quadratically as $`(T_cT)^2`$.

We turn now to the array. As the temperature approaches $`T_c`$, we have $`L0`$ and we become able to apply the scaling form (32) for the critical current per unit area:

$`j_c(T)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}c^2}{8\pi e\kappa ^2\xi _0^{}}}f(s)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{T}{T_c}}\right),`$   
$`s`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{L_NL_S}{2\xi _N^2}}.`$   
Recall that $`f(s)`$ is the scaling function discussed in section IV, illustrated in figure 3 for the repulsive and attractive cases and obeying the limiting forms contained in eqns. (35) and (38). We see that we have a linear dependence of the critical current as $`j_c=𝒜(T_cT)`$. In addition, the associated coefficient, $`𝒜`$, of this linear dependence depends on the parameters $`L_N`$, $`L_S`$ and $`V`$ through the product $`L_NL_SV`$:

$`𝒜={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}c^2}{8\pi e\kappa ^2\xi _0^{}T_c}}f\left({\displaystyle \frac{2mL_NL_SV}{\mathrm{}^2}}\right).`$   
Notice that both large and small values of this product may be probed while staying within the requirement that $`L_N\xi _N`$.

In moving away from $`T_c`$ for the attractive ($`V<0`$) case, an addition feature arises in accordance with the vanishing of the critical current at $`L=2|g|`$: we have that the critical current vanishes at the temperature $`T^{}<T_c`$, as well as at $`T_c`$ itself. Here, $`T^{}`$ is determined by

$`\xi (T^{})=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{L_S}{2L_N}}}\xi _N.`$   
Moreover, since $`j_c`$ vanishes linearly in $`|L/2|g|1|`$, we have that the critical current vanishes linearly in $`|TT^{}|`$ as $`T^{}`$ is approached.

This concludes our discussion of the temperature dependence of the critical current of the Josephson array near $`T_c`$ (and $`T^{}`$). We now focus on the case of $`TT^{}`$ to examine whether order parameter fluctuations exist at arbitrarily low frequencies in this limit.

## VII Order Parameter Fluctuations at $`L=2|g|`$

Having identified the special value ($`L=2|g|`$) of the (attractive) scatterer separation at which the critical current takes a zero value, we here examine whether a simple explanation for this effect exists in terms of order parameter fluctuations at arbitrarily low frequencies.

We use a standard procedure to describe such fluctuations in a condensate of non-uniform density (see, for example, Giorgini et al. ): we perturb the wavefunction $`\psi (x,t)`$ (see Section II) by a small contribution that is oscillatory in time:

$`\psi (x,t)=e^{i\mu t}\left[\varphi (x)+u(x)e^{i\omega t}+v^{}(x)e^{i\omega t}\right].`$   
The flow equation (2) may then be linearised in these small oscillations to give the following coupled flow equations for $`u(x)`$ and $`v(x)`$:

$`u(x)+\rho (x)v(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega u(x),`$ (57)   
$`\rho (x)u(x)+v(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega v(x),`$ (58)   
where

$`=_x^2/2\mu +2\rho (x)+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}g_\alpha \delta (xx_\alpha ).`$   
These equations are supplemented with the normalization condition,

$`{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[u^{}(x)u(x)v^{}(x)v(x)\right]}=1,`$ (59)   
while trivial integration of the flow equations (57) and (58) over each scatterer gives the jump conditions,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[_x\left(\begin{array}{c}u\\ v\end{array}\right)\right]_{x_\alpha ^{}}^{x_\alpha ^+}=g\left(\begin{array}{c}u\\ v\end{array}\right)(x_\alpha ).`$ (64)   
Our aim is to determine whether fluctuations in the wavefunction, propagating as sound waves, exist at arbitrarily low frequencies at the separation $`L=2|g|`$. To this end, we search for a consistent solution for $`u(x)`$ and $`v(x)`$ in the limit of $`\omega 0`$.

For preparation we review the solutions in the homogeneous case, ie. in the absence of any scatterers. In this case, the perturbations are plane-waves, $`u(x)=\mathrm{exp}(ikx)u/_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ and $`v(x)=\mathrm{exp}(ikx)v/_{\mathrm{sys}}`$, where $`_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ is the system size as before. The flow equations (57) and (58), together with the normalization condition, (59), are now easily solved to give

$`u^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{+\omega }{2\omega }},`$ (65)   
$`v^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{2\omega }},`$ (66)   
where $`=k^2/2+\rho `$. The dispersion relation reads

$`\omega ^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k^2(k^2+2\rho ).`$   
We now generalise to the case of the non-uniform density at the separation, $`L=2|g|`$. In this case, we need to incorporate the jump condition given by (64) at each scatterer. Given the periodicity of the arrangement of the scatterers, we will search for purely periodic solutions for $`u`$ and $`v`$:

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}u\\ v\end{array}\right)(x+L)=\pm \left(\begin{array}{c}u\\ v\end{array}\right)(x),`$ (71)   
so that we may restrict attention to only a single region $`|x|<L/2`$ with one jump condition. Eqn. (71) may be seen as a Bloch theorem for $`u`$ and $`v`$, at Bloch momenta which are precisely multiples of $`\pi /L`$: odd and even multiples give rise to solutions in $`u`$ and $`v`$ which are odd and even in $`x`$, respectively.

Bearing in mind the form of the solutions (65) and (66) for the uniform case, a consistent series expansion for $`u(x)`$ and $`v(x)`$ in the limit of $`\omega 0`$ becomes:

$`u(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{u_0(x)}{\sqrt{\omega }}}(1+𝒪(\omega )),`$   
$`v(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{v_0(x)}{\sqrt{\omega }}}(1+𝒪(\omega )).`$   
The normalization condition, (59), to zeroth order then gives $`u_0^2=v_0^2`$: by analogy with the homogeneous case, we take $`u_0=v_0`$. The zeroth-order differential equation for $`u_0(x)`$, corresponding to eqn. (57), becomes

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_x^2\mu +3\rho (x)\right]u(x)=0,`$   
for $`x(L/2,L/2)`$. We substitute the form (45) for the density $`\rho (x)`$: we find

$`\left[_y^2+(16\mathrm{sec}^2y)\right]u(y)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (72)   
where $`y=\sqrt{\rho (0)}x`$. The two independent solutions of this differential equation are as follows: 

$`u_1(y)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}y}{\mathrm{cos}^2y}};u_2(y)=F(1,2;{\displaystyle \frac{7}{2}};\mathrm{cos}^2y)\mathrm{cos}^3y,`$   
where $`F`$ is Gauss’s hypergeometric function . By the Bloch theorem, eqn. (71), we will take $`u(y)`$ to be either purely odd or purely even: $`u(y)=Au_1(y)`$ or $`u(y)=Bu_2(y)`$. We now check whether either solution is compatible with the jump condition. We see that this check is independent of the coefficients $`A`$ and $`B`$. Taking the odd solution first, $`u_1(y)`$, the jump condition (64) becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\rho (0)}\left[\mathrm{cot}(y_0)+2\mathrm{tan}(y_0)\right],`$   
where $`y_0=\sqrt{\rho (0)}L/2`$. This simplifies by use of eqn. (46) to

$`0=\rho (0)+{\displaystyle \frac{L^2}{4}},`$   
which clearly cannot be satisfied for any L, as the right-hand side always exceeds zero. This solution must therefore be discarded. We are left with the even solution, $`u_2(y)`$, for which the jump condition (64) becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}=\sqrt{\rho (0)}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{5\mathrm{cos}^2(y_0)}{\mathrm{sin}(y_0)u(y_0)}}+\mathrm{cot}(y_0)+2\mathrm{tan}(y_0)\right],`$   
which follows from standard properties of the hypergeometric function . Use of eqn. (46) simplifies this condition to the form

$`F(1,2;{\displaystyle \frac{7}{2}};\mathrm{cos}^2(y_0))=5.`$ (73)   
However it is easy to check that $`0<F(1,2;7/2;z)<5`$ for $`0<z<1`$, with $`F(1,2;7/2;0)=0`$ and $`F(1,2;7/2;1)=5`$: clearly the condition (73) cannot be satisfied either for any $`L>0`$.

We conclude that a periodic solution for $`u(x)`$ does not exist in the limit of $`\omega 0`$ and hence such order parameter fluctuations do not exist at arbitrarily low frequencies. Instead it seems we must appeal to the nonlinearity of the flow equations as an underlying cause for the surprising effect of a zero critical current at $`L=2|g|`$.

## VIII Summary

In this paper we have examined the superfluid flow past an array of point-like scatterers in one dimension. We have determined the critical current of the flow, above which the flow becomes unsteady. While the result for a single scatterer is recovered in the limit of large scatterer separation, we find a scaling form for the critical current in the opposite limit of small scatterer separation. The scaling function takes a particular form, separate in the repulsive and attractive cases, that we have obtained numerically, as well as derived analytically in the various limiting cases of scatterer strength and separation. We also find the additional feature in the attractive case that the critical current vanishes altogether at one special value of the scatterer separation ($`L=2|g|`$).

While these results are applicable to a variety of physical situations, an important application is in the prediction of the temperature dependence of a Josepshon array, in the presence of a Hartee potential and near $`T_c`$. In contrast to dependencies already derived and observed experimentally in other geometries, we find for the array a linear dependence of the critical current as $`𝒜(T_cT)`$. The coefficient $`𝒜`$ depends sensitively on the size of the normal regions ($`L_N`$) and of the superconducting regions ($`L_S`$) and the Hartree interaction, $`V`$, through the product $`L_SL_NV`$. In addition, for the attractive case ($`V<0`$), the critical current is suppressed to zero as $`TT^{}`$, as well as at $`T_c`$ itself, where $`T^{}`$ is some temperature less than $`T_c`$. We have ruled out a simple explanation for this suppression of the critical current in terms of order parameter fluctuations at low frequencies, instead appealing to the nonlinearity of the flow equations as an underlying cause.

## Acknowledgements

One of us (DT-S) gratefully acknowledges the financial support of EPSRC and Trinity College.

## A Single impurity: critical current

To find the critical current for a single impurity, we replace the integration constant $`\alpha `$ in eqn. (17) in favour of the constant $`\rho (0)`$, where $`\mathrm{tanh}^2\alpha =(\rho (0)j^2)/(1j^2)`$, and reformulate the jump condition (10) as

$`g^2\rho (0)^2=(\rho (0)j^2)(\rho (0)1)^2,`$ (A1)   
where we have used the first integral of the flow equation, eqn. (9). The critical current, $`j_{c,0}`$, is determined by the condition $`j_c/\rho (0)=0`$, or

$`2g^2\rho (0)=(\rho (0)1)(3\rho (0)12j_{c,0}^2).`$ (A2)   
Eliminating $`g`$ from eqns. (A1) and (A2), we find

$`\rho (0)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[1+(1+8j_{c,0}^2)^{1/2}\right],`$ (A3)   
while eliminating $`j`$ in a similar manner gives

$`(\rho (0)1)^3+2g^2\rho (0)=0.`$ (A4)   
Eqns. (A3) and (A4) give the following solution for $`j_{c,0}`$:

$`j_{c,0}(g>0)^2`$ $`=`$ $`1{\displaystyle \frac{2g^2}{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3g}{\sqrt{2}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{R}{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R}}\right)+g^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{R^2}{9}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^2}}\right),`$   
$`R^3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{2}g}{1+\sqrt{1+8g^2/27}}}.`$   
This formula reduces to the forms shown in the main text in the limits of large and small scattering strength, $`g`$.

## B Repulsive impurities at Small Separation

In this section we obtain the critical current for repulsive impurities at small separation, $`L1`$. We treat the subcases of $`gL1`$ and $`gL1`$ separately.

### 1 The subcase $`gL1`$

In this limit, the have that the density $`\rho (x)`$ approaches 2 at the origin and zero at the impurities. Using eqn. (39), we see that the latter limit means that $`\sqrt{2\mu }L/2\pi /2`$. Writing

$`\sqrt{2\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}\gamma ,`$ (B1)   
where $`\gamma 1`$, we have from eqn. (39) that

$`\rho (L/2){\displaystyle \frac{j^2L^2}{2\pi ^2}}+2\gamma ^2.`$ (B2)   
In addition, the normalization condition, eqn. (40), leads to $`\rho (0)=2(12\gamma /\pi )`$. Inserting eqn. (B2) into the jump condition, eqn. (30), we find

$`j^2`$ $``$ $`g^2\rho (L/2)^2+4\mu \rho (L/2)`$   
$`=`$ $`g^2({\displaystyle \frac{j^2L^2}{2\pi ^2}}+2\gamma )^2+j^2+{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi ^2\gamma ^2}{L^2}}`$   
or

$`j={\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{gL^2}}\left[1\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{2Lg\gamma }{\pi }}\right)^2\right]^{1/2}.`$   
Maximisation of this expression with respect to $`\gamma `$ is now trivial and gives 

$`j_c={\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2}{gL^2}},gL1,`$   
as required. At this critical current, we have $`\gamma =\pi /(2gL)1`$ and $`\rho (L/2)=\pi ^2/(gL)^21`$.

### 2 The subcase $`gL1`$

We now take the opposite limit of $`gL1`$. In this case, we have that the density $`\rho (x)`$ is close to 1 for all values of $`x`$. We set $`u=\rho (0)11`$, and define $`\gamma `$ as before, in eqn. (B1). As may be verified at the end of the calculation, we have that $`u,\gamma 1`$ (for $`j`$ near its critical value). We first use the normalization condition, eqn. (40), and the jump condition, eqn. (30), to determine a relation between $`u`$ and $`\gamma `$. This will allow us to obtain an expression for $`j`$ in terms of only $`\gamma `$, which may then be maximised simply.

The normalization condition, eqn. (40), now reads

$`1=\beta +{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)\beta }{2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2\gamma }{\pi 2\gamma }}\right),`$   
leading to

$`\beta =1u+\mathrm{}`$ (B3)   
Since $`\beta =j^2/(2\mu \rho (0))`$, this gives

$`{\displaystyle \frac{j^2L^2}{\pi ^2}}=1{\displaystyle \frac{4\gamma }{\pi }}u^2+\mathrm{}`$ (B4)   
In eqn. (B3) and (B4) we have kept to first order in $`\gamma `$ and second order in $`u`$, which may be checked to be an appropriate level of accuracy at the end of the calculation. The limiting form for the density, eqn. (39) now gives

$`\rho (L/2)`$ $`=`$ $`\beta +(\rho (0)\beta )\gamma ^2`$   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{2\mu \rho (0)}}+2u\gamma ^2.`$   
Inserting this into the jump condition, (30), we find

$`j^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{2u}}+j^2+4\mu u\gamma ^2.`$   
Notice the cancellation of the $`j^2`$ terms, which allows us to find

$`u\gamma ={\displaystyle \frac{gL}{2\pi }}.`$ (B5)   
Inserting eqn. (B5) into eqn. (B4), we find

$`{\displaystyle \frac{j^2L^2}{\pi ^2}}=1{\displaystyle \frac{4\gamma }{\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{(gL)^2}{4\pi ^2\gamma ^2}}+\mathrm{}`$   
This expression may now be maximised simply with respect to $`\gamma `$, with the result

$`j_c={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{L}}\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{gL}{\pi ^2}}\right)^{2/3}\right],`$ (B6)   
as required. At the critical current, we have that

$`\gamma ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi ^{1/3}}}(gL)^{2/3}1;u={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi ^{2/3}}}(gL)^{1/3}1.`$   
## C Attractive impurities at Small Separation

In this section we obtain the critical current for attractive impurities at small separation, $`L|g|`$. We again treat the subcases of $`|g|L1`$ and $`|g|L1`$ separately.

### 1 The subcase $`|g|L1`$

In the limit of $`|g|L1`$, we have that $`\rho (x)`$ is close to zero at the origin and $`\rho (L/2)1`$ at the impurities. As may be confirmed at the end of the calculation, we have $`|\beta ||\alpha |`$ and hence $`k1`$, or more precisely,

$`k=1+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)+|\alpha |}{4|\mu |}},`$ (C1)   
where $`\alpha =j^2/(2\mu \rho (0))`$. The jump condition (30) gives

$`0g^22|\mu |,`$   
and hence $`\rho (x)=g^2\mathrm{csch}^2(p|g||x|)`$. The normalization condition, eqn. (28), then leads to

$`1={\displaystyle \frac{4|g|}{L}}\mathrm{exp}(2p+|g|L),`$   
and hence $`\rho (L/2)=|g|L1`$. The expression for $`k`$, eqn. (C1), together with the definition of $`p`$, eqn. (44), together give

$`j^2=g^2\rho (0)(4|g|L\mathrm{exp}(|g|L)\rho (0)),`$   
which is again easily maximised with respect to the parameter $`\rho (0)`$, to give $`j_c=2g^2L\mathrm{exp}(|g|L)`$ as required. At the critical current, we have that $`\rho (0)=2|g|L\mathrm{exp}(|g|L)1`$, $`\alpha =2|g|L\mathrm{exp}(|g|L)1`$, and $`|\beta |=2g^21`$.

### 2 The subcase $`|g|L1`$

In the limit of $`|g|L1`$, we have that $`\rho (x)`$ is again close to 1 for all values of $`x`$. Consider the limiting expressions, eqn. (24), for the parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$: we see that taking $`\alpha \beta \mu \rho (0)/2`$ and hence $`j^2(\mu \rho /2)^2\rho (0)`$ leads to a local maximum for the supercurrent as the solutions loses its applicability above such values of $`j`$. In this limit, we have $`k1`$ and the form (43) follows for the density. The normalization condition, (28), gives

$`\left(|\mu |+1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\rho (0)\right){\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}}=\left(|\mu |+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\rho (0)\right){\displaystyle \frac{L}{2}},`$ (C2)   
where we have used $`|\mu |L^21`$, which we will find to hold given $`|g|L1`$. We see that the normalization condition is satisfied automatically as $`\rho (0)1`$. We also have that $`\rho (L/2)\rho (0)+j^2L^2/4`$, and it may be checked retrospectively that $`\rho (L/2)1`$ for $`|g|L1`$. The jump condition, (30), then leads to

$`j_c^2={\displaystyle \frac{4g^2}{j_c^2L^2}}2j_c,`$   
and hence $`j_c(2|g|/L)^{1/2}`$ as required.

## D Attractive Impurities at $`L2|g|`$

. In this section, we consider the special value of the separation, $`L=2|g|`$, at which the critical current vanishes entirely in the attractive case. More specifically, we take $`L=2|g|(1+ϵ)`$ and consider the limit of very small $`ϵ`$ (which may be positive or negative). Using the limiting form of the density, eqn. (48, in the main text, we see that the boson-number fixing condition, eqn. (28), leads to

$`\rho (L/2)=\rho (0)+(1\beta )^2{\displaystyle \frac{L^2}{4}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma \beta }{\rho (0)}}\right).`$   
Inserting this value for $`\rho (L/2)`$ into the jump condition, eqn. (30), we find

$`{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{\rho (0)\rho (L/2)^2}}=ϵ+\beta \left[2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho (0)}}\right]+\gamma \left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho (0)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\rho (L/2)}}\right].`$   
At this point we are justified in substituting the values of $`\rho (0)`$ and $`\rho (L/2)`$ by their values at $`\gamma =0`$: that is, we take $`\rho (0)`$ as the solution of eqn. (46), while $`\rho (L/2)=\rho (0)+L^2/4`$. This leads to the following expression for $`j^2`$:

$`j^2={\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)}{(2\rho (0)1)^2}}\left[ϵ\rho (0)\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2\rho (0)}{\rho (L/2)}}\right)\gamma \right]\left[ϵ\rho (0)\left(4\rho (0)1+2{\displaystyle \frac{\rho (0)}{\rho (L/2)}}\right)\gamma \right].`$   
It may be verified that for $`ϵ=0`$, ie. $`L=2|g|`$, the solution $`j=0`$ exists for $`\gamma =0`$, while as soon as $`\gamma `$ becomes non-zero, the solution for $`j`$ becomes imaginary: the flow equations are unable to admit a well-behaved solution for any non-zero supercurrent. In contrast, for non-zero $`ϵ`$, we may maximise $`j`$ straightforwardly with respect to $`\gamma `$ to arrive at

$`j_c^2={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ^2\rho (0)^3}{(2\rho (0)/\rho (L/2)+1)(4\rho (0)+2\rho (0)/\rho (L/2)1)}}.`$ (D1)   
In particular, we see that $`j_c`$ vanishes linearly as $`|ϵ|`$ as $`ϵ0`$.