Detection mechanism for quantum phase transition in superconducting qubit array

We describe a mechanism to detect quantum phase transition (QPT) in a system by a coherent probe weakly coupled to it. We illustrate this mechanism by a circuit QED architecture where a superconducting Josephson junction qubit array interacts with a one-dimensional superconducting transmission line resonator (TLR). The superconducting qubit array is modeled as an Ising chain in transverse field. Our investigation shows that the QPT phenomenon in the superconducting qubit array can be evidently revealed by the correlation spectrum of TLR output: At the critical point, the drastic broadening of spectrum indicates the occurrence of QPT. We also show the generalization of this mechanism to other QPT systems.