Metal-Insulator Transition in a System of Superconducting Vortices Caused by a Metallic Gate

We address a recent experiment in which a strong decrease of the resistance of a superconducting film has been observed when a remote unbiased gate was placed above the film. Here we explain the experimental finding as a suppression of the vortex tunneling due to the Orthogonality Catastrophe of the electrons inside the gate. We interpret the change in the resistance of the film as a “metal-insulator” transition in the system of vortices induced by the gate.