This Letter provides the solution to a yet unsolved basic problem of Solid State Physics: the ground state energy of an arbitrary number of Cooper pairs interacting via the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer potential. We here break a 50 year old math problem by analytically solving Richardson-Gaudin equations which give the exact energy of these $N$ pairs via $N$ parameters coupled through $N$ non-linear equations. Our result fully supports the standard BCS result obtained for a pair number equal to half the number of states feeling the potential. More importantly, it shows that the interaction part of the $N$-pair energy depends on $N$ as $N(N-1)$ only from N=1 to the dense regime, a result which evidences that Cooper pairs interact via Pauli blocking only.
The Bogoliubov approach to superconductivity provides a strong mathematical support to the wave function ansatz proposed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS). Indeed, this ansatz --- with all pairs condensed into the same state --- corresponds to the ground state of the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian. Yet, this Hamiltonian only is part of the BCS Hamiltonian. As a result, the BCS ansatz definitely differs from the BCS Hamiltonian ground state. This can be directly shown either through a perturbative approach starting from the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian, or better by analytically solving the BCS Schrödi…
We investigate the ground-state energy of a Richardson-Gaudin integrable BCS model, generalizing the closed and open p+ip models. The Hamiltonian supports a family of mutually commuting conserved operators satisfying quadratic relations. From the eigenvalues of the conserved operators we derive, in the continuum limit, an integral equation for which a solution corresponding to the ground state is established. The energy expression from this solution agrees with the BCS mean-field result.
Background: The reduced, level-independent, Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Hamiltonian is exactly diagonalizable by means of a Bethe Ansatz wavefunction, provided the free variables in the Ansatz are the solutions of the set of Richardson-Gaudin equations. On the one side, the Bethe Ansatz is a simple product state of generalised pair operators. On the other hand, the Richardson-Gaudin equations are strongly coupled in a non-linear way, making them prone to singularities. Unfortunately, it is non-trivial to give a clear physical interpretation to the Richardson-Gaudin variables because no physical …
The Richardson-Gaudin model describes strong pairing correlations of fermions confined to a finite chain. The integrability of the Hamiltonian allows for its eigenstates to be constructed algebraically. In this work we show that quantum group theory provides a possibility to deform the Hamiltonian while preserving integrability. More precisely, we use the so-called Jordanian r-matrix to deform the Hamiltonian of the Richardson-Gaudin model. In order to preserve its integrability, we need to insert a special nilpotent term into the auxiliary L-operator which generates integrals of motion of the…
A connection is made between the exact eigen states of the BCS Hamiltonian and the predictions made by the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation. This connection is made by means of a parametrised algebra, which gives the exact quasi-spin algebra in one limit of the parameter and the Heisenberg-Weyl algebra in the other. Using this algebra to construct the Bethe Ansatz solution of the BCS Hamiltonian, we obtain parametrised Richardson-Gaudin equations, leading to the secular equation of the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation in the bosonic limit. An example is discussed in depth.
What distinguishes trivial from topological superluids in interacting many-body systems where the number of particles is conserved? Building on a class of integrable pairing Hamiltonians, we present a number-conserving, interacting variation of the Kitaev model, the Richardson-Gaudin-Kitaev chain, that remains exactly solvable for periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions. Our model allows us to identify fermionic parity switches that distinctively characterize topological superconductivity in interacting many-body systems. Although the Majorana zero-modes in this model have only a power-l…
Higher spin Richardson-Gaudin model with time-dependent coupling: Exact dynamics
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Universiteit van Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学理论物理研究所）；Russian Quantum Center, Skolkovo, Moscow（俄罗斯量子中心（莫斯科斯科尔科沃））；QuSoft, Science Park 123（QuSoft（科学园123号））；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Materials Theory, Rutgers University（罗格斯大学物理与天文学系材料理论中心）
We propose a many-body formalism for Cooper pairs which has similarities to the one we recently developed for composite boson excitons (coboson in short). Its Shiva diagram representation evidences that $N$ Cooper pairs differ from $N$ single pairs through electron exchange only: no direct coupling exists due to the very peculiar form of the BCS potential. As a first application, we here use this formalism to derive Richardson's equations for the exact eigenstates of $N$ Cooper pairs. This gives hints on why the $N(N-1)$ dependence of the $N$-pair ground state energy we recently obtained by so…
We present a numerical approach which allows the solving of Bethe equations whose solutions define the eigenstates of Gaudin models. By focusing on a new set of variables, the canceling divergences which occur for certain values of the coupling strength no longer appear explicitly. The problem is thus reduced to a set of quadratic algebraic equations. The required inverse transformation can then be realized using only linear operations and a standard polynomial root finding algorithm. The method is applied to Richardson's fermionic pairing model, the central spin model and generalized Dicke mo…
In this work, we generalize the numerical approach to Gaudin models developed earlier by us to degenerate systems showing that their treatment is surprisingly convenient from a numerical point of view. In fact, high degeneracies not only reduce the number of relevant states in the Hilbert space by a non negligible fraction, they also allow to write the relevant equations in the form of sparse matrix equations. Moreover, we introduce a new inversion method based on a basis of barycentric polynomials which leads to a more stable and efficient root extraction which most importantly avoids the nec…
We construct a new, two-parametric family of integrable models and reveal their underlying duality symmetry. A modular subgroup of this duality is shown to connect non-interacting modes of different systems. We apply the new solution and duality to a Richardson-Gaudin model and generate a novel integrable system termed the $s$-$d$ wave Richardson-Gaudin-Kitaev interacting chain, interpolating $s$- and $d$- wave superconductivity. The phase diagram of this model has a topological phase transition that can be connected to the duality, where the occupancy of the non-interacting mode serves as a t…
The variational reduced density matrix theory has been recently applied with great success to models within the truncated doubly-occupied configuration interaction space, which corresponds to the seniority zero subspace. Conservation of the seniority quantum number restricts the Hamiltonians to be based on the SU(2) algebra. Among them there is a whole family of exactly solvable Richardson-Gaudin pairing Hamiltonians. We benchmark the variational theory against two different exactly solvable models, the Richardson-Gaudin-Kitaev and the reduced BCS Hamiltonians. We obtain exact numerical result…
A BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) superconductor, which is placed out of equilibrium, can develop quantum instabilities, which manifest themselves in oscillations of the superconductor's order parameter (pairing amplitude $Δ$). These instabilities are a manifestations of the Cooper instability. Inelastic collisions are essential in resolving those instabilities. Incorporating the quantum instabilities and collisions in a unified approach based on Richardson's exact solution of the pairing Hamiltonian, we find that a BCS superconductor may end up in a state in which the spectrum has more than o…
We extend the one-pair Cooper configuration towards Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) model of superconductivity by adding one-by-one electron pairs to an energy layer where a small attraction acts. To do it, we solve Richardson's equations analytically in the dilute limit of pairs on the one-Cooper pair scale. We find, through only keeping the first order term in this expansion, that the $N$ correlated pair energy reads as the energy of $N$ isolated pairs within a $N(N-1)$ correction induced by the Pauli exclusion principle which tends to decrease the average pair binding energy when the pair n…
It is known that solutions of Richardson equations can be represented as stationary points of the "energy" of classical free charges on the plane. We suggest to consider "probabilities" of the system of charges to occupy certain states in the configurational space at the effective temperature given by the interaction constant, which goes to zero in the thermodynamical limit. It is quite remarkable that the expression of "probability" has similarities with the square of Laughlin wave function. Next, we introduce the "partition function", from which the ground state energy of the initial quantum…
While the one-Cooper pair problem is now a textbook exercise, the energy of two pairs of electrons with opposite spins and zero total momentum has not been derived yet, the exact handling of Pauli blocking between bound pairs being not that easy for N=2 already. The two-Cooper pair problem however is quite enlightening to understand the very peculiar role played by the Pauli exclusion principle in superconductivity. Pauli blocking is known to drive the change from 1 to $N$ pairs, but no precise description of this continuous change has been given so far. Using Richardson procedure, we here sho…
We use Richardson-Gaudin exact equations to derive the ground-state energy of $N$ composite bosons (cobosons) interacting via a potential which acts between fermion pairs having zero center-of-mass momentum, that is, a potential similar to the reduced BCS potential used in conventional superconductivity. Through a density expansion, we show that while, for 2D systems, the $N$-coboson correlation energy undergoes a surprising cancellation which leaves the interaction part with a $N(N-1)$ dependence only, such a cancellation does not exist in 1D, 3D, and 4D systems --- which corresponds to 2D pa…
In this work, we study the full set of eigenstates of a $p_x+ip_y$ topological superconductor coupled to a particle bath which can be described in terms of an integrable Hamiltonian of the Richardson-Gaudin class. The results derived in this work also characterise the behaviour of an anisotropic XXZ central spin model in a external magnetic field since both types of Hamiltonian are know to share the exact same conserved quantities making them formally equivalent. We show how by ramping the coupling strength (or equivalently the magnetic field acting in the z-direction on the central spin), eac…
Entanglement between blocks of energy-levels is analysed for systems exhibiting s-wave and p-wave superconductivity. We study the entanglement entropy and spectrum of a block of $\ell$ levels around the Fermi point, and also between particles and holes, in the ground state of Richardson-type Hamiltonians. The maximal entropy grows with the number of levels $L$ approximately as $1/2\log(L)$, as suggested by the permutational symmetry of the state at large coupling. The number of levels in the block around the Fermi surface with maximal entanglement is proposed as a measure of the number of {\em…
