Coherent transient effects in Josephson junctions: Experimental test

We propose and analyze an experimental test of the pseudo-angular momentum theory of the transient behavior of a Josephson junction. It is demonstrated that if the diode is initially prepared in a phase disordered state, the pseudo-angular momentum theory predicts that a pair current will appear whose motion consists of periodic oscillations which arise from and reflect variation in the degree of phase order across the junction. Furthermore, we contrast the pseudo-angular momentum description to more conventional approaches which predict no such behavior. (orig.)