  Strong interaction of a system of quantum emitters (e.g., two-level atoms)
with electromagnetic field induces specific correlations in the system
accompanied by a drastic insrease of emitted radiation (superradiation or
superfluorescence). Despite the fact that since its prediction this phenomenon
was subject to a vigorous experimental and theoretical research, there remain
open question, in particular, concerning the possibility of a first order phase
transition to the superradiant state from the vacuum state. In systems of
natural and charge-based artificial atome this transition is prohibited by
"no-go" theorems. Here we demonstrate numerically a similar transition in a
one-dimensional quantum metamaterial - a chain of artificial atoms (qubits)
strongly interacting with classical electromagnetic fields in a transmission
line. The system switches from vacuum state with zero classical electromagnetic
fields and all qubits being in the ground state to the quasi-superradiant (QS)
phase with one or several magnetic solitons and finite average occupation of
qubit excited states along the transmission line. A quantum metamaterial in the
QS phase circumvents the "no-go" restrictions by considerably decreasing its
total energy relative to the vacuum state by exciting nonlinear electromagnetic
solitons with many nonlinearly coupled electromagnetic modes in the presence of
external magnetic field.
