We focus on the dynamical feature for a $p$-wave superconductor model in different parameter regions in terms of the appearance of gapless edge modes in reel geometry. Firstly, we show the parameter region with gapless edge modes versus a parameter and quasi-momentum. The parameter diagram can be reflected by the expectations of Pauli matrices in global manners. In another view, the dynamical feature of the excitation behave differently in the parameter regions with topological gapless edge modes and not. And the cusps of dynamical return rate vanish as the parameter pass the boundary in the parameter region slowly enough. It is found that the dynamics in the parameter region with gapless edge modes behaves differently to that without edge modes and related mostly to the eigenenergy gap between the pre-and post-quench eigenstates. The cusps of the dynamical return rate behave robustly against the noise in the lattice until localization behavior dominates. This work benefits detecting topological edge modes by dynamical manners.
We demonstrate that Majorana fermions exist in edges of systems and in a vortex core even for superconductors with nodal excitations such as the d-wave pairing state under a particular but realistic condition in the case with an anti-symmetric spin-orbit interaction and a nonzero magnetic field below the upper critical field. We clarify that the Majorana fermion state is topologically protected in spite of the presence of bulk gapless nodal excitations, because of the existence of a nontrivial topological number. Our finding drastically enlarges target systems where we can explore the Majorana…
We investigate theoretically the properties of s-wave multiband superconductors in the weak coupling (BCS) limit in the presence of pair-breaking effects of magnetic field. It is shown that a qualitatively new gapless superconducting state must appear in quasi-2D superconductors in magnetic fields parallel to the plane, corresponding to a Sarma state induced on one of the Fermi surfaces. The emergence of the new state in s-wave multiband superconductors in the absence of anisotropy or spin-orbit interaction is usually accompanied by a zero-temperature first-order metamagnetic phase transition.…
The generalized time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (GTDGL) theory was first proposed to describe better gap superconductors and the phenomenon of thermal phase-slips (PSs) in defect-free systems. However, there is a lack of information about studies involving PSs in mesoscopic superconductors with surface defects. Thus, in this work, we simulated samples with two co-linear surface defects consisting of a lower $T_c$ superconductor narrowing the sample in its central part. The non-linear GTDGL equations were solved self-consistently under variable applied currents and by considering both gapless an…
We show that time-reversal invariant superconductors in d=2 (d=3) dimensions can support topologically stable Fermi points (lines), characterized by an integer topological charge. Combining this with the momentum space symmetries present, we prove analogs of the fermion doubling theorem: for d=2 lattice models admitting a spin X electron-hole structure, the number of Fermi points is a multiple of four, while for d=3, Fermi lines come in pairs. We show two implications of our findings for topological superconductors in d=3: first, we relate the bulk topological invariant to a topological number…
A generalization of the Abrikosov-Gorkov equations for non-magnetic impurities in unconventional superconductors is proposed, including higher harmonics in the expansion of the momentum dependent gap function and a momentum dependent impurity scattering potential. This model is treated within a self-consistent calculation to obtain the electronic density of states, the optical conductivity, and the gap function in a two-dimensional d_{x^2-y^2}-wave superconductor. It is argued that momentum dependent scattering from the impurities may lead to extended gapless regions in the gap function center…
The problem of d-wave quasiparticles in a weakly disordered Abrikosov vortex lattice is studied. Starting with a periodic lattice, the topological structure of the magnetic crystal momenta of gapless fermions is found for the particle-hole symmetric case. If in addition the site centered inversion symmetry is present, both the location and the number of the gapless fermions can be determined using an index theorem. In the case of spatially aperiodic vortex array, Simon and Lee scaling is found to be violated due to a quantum anomaly. The electronic density of states is found to scale with the …
The superconducting gap structures in the transition-metal-based kagome metal AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A=K,Rb,Cs), the first family of quasi-two-dimensional kagome superconductors, remain elusive as there is strong experimental evidence for both nodal and nodaless gap structures. Here we show that the dichotomy can be resolved because of the coexistence of time-reversal symmetry breaking with a conventional fully gapped superconductivity. The symmetry protects the edge states which arise on the domains of the lattice symmetry breaking order to remain gapless in proximity to a conventional pairing. We dem…
The theory of superconductivity developed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) explains the stabilization of electron pairs into a spin-singlet, even frequency, state by the formation of an energy gap within which the density of states is zero. At a superconductor interface with an inhomogeneous ferromagnet, a gapless odd frequency superconducting state is predicted, in which the Cooper pairs are in a spin-triplet state. Although indirect evidence for such a state has been obtained, the gap structure and pairing symmetry have not so far been determined. Here we report scanning tunnelling sp…
Temperature dependence of the London penetration depth $λ$ measured in single crystals of CeCoIn$_5$ is interpreted as caused by a strong pair-breaking scattering that makes the superconductivity in this compound gapless. For a gapless d-wave superconductor, we derive $λ=λ_0/\sqrt{1-(T/T_c)^2}$ caused by combined effect of magnetic and non-magnetic scattering in excellent agreement with the data in the full temperature range and with the gapless s-wave case of Abrikosov and Gor'kov. We also obtain the slope of the upper critical field at $T_c$ that compares well with the measured slope.
We systematically study gapless topological phases of (semi-)metals and nodal superconductors described by Bloch and Bogoliubov-de Gennes Hamiltonians. Using K-theory, a classification of topologically stable Fermi surfaces in (semi-)metals and nodal lines in superconductors is derived. We discuss a generalized bulk-boundary correspondence that relates the topological features of the Fermi surfaces and superconducting nodal lines to the presence of protected zero-energy states at the boundary of the system. Depending on the case, the boundary states are either linearly dispersing (i.e., Dirac …
We propose that a new state with a fully gapless Fermi surface appears in quasi-2D multiband superconductors in magnetic field applied parallel to the plane. It is characterized by a paramagnetic moment caused by a finite density of states on the open Fermi surface. We calculate thermodynamic and magnetic properties of the gapless state for both s-wave and d-wave cases, and discuss the details of the 1-st order metamagnetic phase transition that accompanies the appearance of the new phase in s-wave superconductors. We suggest possible experiments to detect this state both in the s-wave (2-H Nb…
Gapless superconductivity can arise when pairing occurs between fermion species with different Fermi surface sizes, provided there is a sufficiently large mismatch between Fermi surfaces and/or at sufficiently large coupling constant. In gapless states, secondary Fermi surfaces appear where quasiparticle excitation energy vanishes. This work focuses on homogeneous and isotropic superfluids in the s-wave channel, with either zero (conventional superconductor), one, or two spherical Fermi surfaces. The stability conditions for these candidate phases are analyzed. It is found that gapless states …
We study the magnetic instability of gapless superconductors. The instability arises due to the infrared divergence associated with the gapless modes of the superconductor. When the Fermi-surface mismatch between pairing fermions is close to the gap, the gapless modes have a quadratic energy dispersion relation at low energy and open a secondary gap at the Fermi surface, which is only power-suppressed by the coupling. On the other hand, for a large mismatch, we find the gapless superconductor does not open a secondary gap, but instead makes transition to a new phase by forming the condensate o…
The existence of an excitation gap in the bulk spectrum is one of the most prominent fingerprints of topological phases of matter. In this paper, we propose a family of two dimensional Hamiltonians that yield an unusual class $D$ topological superconductor with a gapless bulk spectrum but well-localized Majorana edge states. We perform a numerical analysis for a representative model of this phase and suggest a concrete physical realization by analyzing the effect of magnetic impurities on the surface of strong topological insulators.
We demonstrate how the non-trivial interplay between spin-orbit coupling and nodeless $s$-wave superconductivity can drive a fully gapped two-band topological insulator into a time-reversal invariant gapless topological superconductor supporting symmetry-protected Majorana flat bands. We characterize topological phase diagrams by a ${\mathbb Z}_2 \times{\mathbb Z}_2$ partial Berry-phase invariant, and show that, despite the trivial crystal geometry, no unique bulk-boundary correspondence exists. We trace this behavior to the anisotropic quasiparticle bulk gap closing, linear vs. quadratic, and…
The presence of magnetic fields and/or transport currents can cause penetration of vortices in superconductors. Their motion leads to dissipation and resistive state arises, which in turn strongly affects the performance of superconducting devices such as single-photon and single-electron detectors. Therefore, an understanding of the dissipation mechanisms in mesoscopic superconductors is not only of fundamental value but also very important for further technological advances. In the present work, we analyzed the contributions and interplay of the dissipative mechanisms due to the locally indu…
In this work, we show that an in-plane magnetic field can drive a fully gapped $p \pm i p$ topological superconductor into a gapless phase which supports symmetry protected Majorana edge states (MESs). Specifically, an in-plane magnetic field can close the bulk gap and create zero energy Majorana flat bands (MFBs) in the excitation spectrum. We show that the MFBs in the gapless regime are protected by symmetry and are associated with MESs. The MFBs acquire finite slopes when s-wave pairing and Rashba spin-oribit coupling terms are added to the Hamiltonian. In this case, novel uni-directional M…
The Higgs mode associated with amplitude fluctuations of the superconducting gap in uniform superconductors usually is heavy, which makes its excitation and detection difficult. We report on the existence of a gapless Higgs mode in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states. This feature is originated from the Goldstone mode associated with the translation symmetry breaking. The existence of the gapless Higgs mode is demonstrated by using both a phenomenological model and microscopic Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. The gapless Higgs mode can avoid the decay into other low energy excit…
We explore possible signatures for observing Majorana Fermions in the tunneling spectroscopy of high-Tc cuprate superconductors. We find that as long as the Rashba spin orbit interaction is in presence either through proximity effect due to an electrode made by heavy metal or by the intrinsic nature of cuprates, in addition to the Heisenberg spin exchange interaction, the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and spin dipole-dipole interactions are induced. As a result, $p$-wave superconductivity is induced with the gap function $d$-vector being not aligned with the internal magnetic field of the spin-orbit i…
We study topological stability of nodes in nonsymmorphic superconductors (SCs). In particular, we demonstrate that line nodes in nonsymmirphic odd-parity SCs are protected by the interplay between topology and nonsymmorphic symmetry. As an example, it is shown that the $E_{2u}$-superconducting state of UPt$_3$ hosts the topologically stable line node at the Brillouin zone face. Our theory indicates that the existence of spin-orbit coupling is essential for protecting such a line node, complementing the Norman's group theory argument. Developing the topological arguments, we also argue generali…
This paper is devoted to the study of some aspects of the instability of two flavor color superconductive quark matter. We find that, beside color condensates, the Goldstone boson related to the breaking of $U(1)_A$ suffers of a velocity instability. We relate this wrong sign problem, which implies the existence of a Goldstone current in the ground state or of gluonic condensation, to the negative squared Meissner mass of the $8^{th}$ gluon in the g2SC phase. Moreover we investigate the Meissner masses of the gluons and the squared velocity of the Goldstone in the multiple plane wave LOFF stat…
Searching for topological insulators/superconductors is a central subject in recent condensed matter physics. As a theoretical aspect, various classification methods of symmetry-protected topological phases have been developed, where the topology of a gapped Hamiltonian is investigated from the viewpoint of its onsite/crystal symmetry. On the other hand, topological physics also appears in semimetals, whose gapless points can be characterized by topological invariants. Stimulated by this background, we shed light on the topology of nodal superconductors. In this paper, we review our modern top…
We study two-dimensional noncentrosymmetric nodal superconductors under Zeeman field and clarify the field angle dependence of topological properties. It has been shown that the nodal excitation acquires an excitation gap due to the Zeeman field perpendicular to anti-symmetric spin-orbit coupling, and then gapful topological superconductivity is realized. We show that the system undergoes gapful-gapless transition against tilting of the field. The gapless phase remains to show a finite band gap and unusual Majorana edge states in between the bulk bands. The Majorana edge states naturally propa…
We study a Kitaev model on a square lattice, which describes topologically trivial superconductor when gap opens, while supports topological gapless phase when gap closes. The degeneracy points are characterized by two vortices in momentum space, with opposite winding numbers, which are not removable unless meet together. We show rigorously that the topological gapless phase always hosts a partial Majorana flat band edge modes in a ribbon geometry, although such a single band model has zero Chern number as a topologically trivial superconductor. The flat band disappears when the gapless phase …
Entanglement spectrum of gapless topological phases: a case study with topological superconductors
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids（马克斯·普朗克固体化学物理研究所）；University of St Andrews（圣安德鲁斯大学）
It is demonstrated that the known for a long time transition between the gap and the gapless states in the Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory of a superconductor with paramagnetic impurities is of the Lifshitz type, i.e. of the $2\frac12$ order phase transition. We reveal the emergence of a cuspidal edge at the density of states surface $N(ω,Δ_0)$ ($Δ_0$ is the value of the superconducting order parameter in the absence of magnetic impurities) and the occurrence of the catastrophe phenomenon at the transition point. We study the stability of such a transition with respect to the spatial fluctuations of …
The excitation spectrum of a two-dimensional $p_x+ip_y$ fermionic superfluid, such as a thin film of $^3$He-A, includes a gapless Majorana-Weyl fermion which is confined to the boundary by Andreev reflection. There is also a persistent ground-state boundary current which provides a droplet containing $N$ particles with angular momentum $\hbar N/2$. Both of these boundary effects are associated with bulk Chern-Simons effective actions. We show that the gapless edge-mode is required for the gauge invariance of the total effective action, but the same is not true of the boundary current.
We investigate the origin of Abelian and non-Abelian type magnetic instabilities induced by Fermi surface mismatch between the two pairing fermions in a non-relativistic model. The Abelian type instability occurs only in gapless state and the Meissner mass squared becomes divergent at the gapless-gapped transition point, while the non-Abelian type instability happens in both gapless and gapped states and the divergence vanishes. The non-Abelian type instability can be cured in strong coupling region.
We study the behavior of magnetic superconductors which involve a local attractive interaction between electrons, and a coupling between local moments and the electrons. We solve this `Hubbard-Kondo' model through a variational minimization at zero temperature and validate the results via a Monte Carlo based on static auxiliary field decomposition of the Hubbard interaction. Over a magnetic coupling window that widens with increasing attractive interaction the ground state supports simultaneous magnetic and superconducting order. The pairing amplitude remains s-wave like, without significant s…
We develop a unified framework to classify topological defects in insulators and superconductors described by spatially modulated Bloch and Bogoliubov de Gennes Hamiltonians. We consider Hamiltonians H(k,r) that vary slowly with adiabatic parameters r surrounding the defect and belong to any of the ten symmetry classes defined by time reversal symmetry and particle-hole symmetry. The topological classes for such defects are identified, and explicit formulas for the topological invariants are presented. We introduce a generalization of the bulk-boundary correspondence that relates the topologic…
A topological theory of d-wave superconductors is derived in this thesis. Ginzburg-Landau theory describes superconductivity by defining a complex order parameter and applying Landau's theory for phase transitions. However, there is no local, gauge invariant order parameter for a superconductor and classical order is no appropriate description. Topological order has proven to be a powerful tool for describing the Quantum Hall effect and it gives also an appropriate description of s-wave superconductors. For d-wave superconductors there are gapless excitations at four points on the Fermi surfac…
We find that the vortex bound states in superconducting topological semimetals are gapless owing to topological massless excitations in their normal states. We demonstrate this universal result in a variety of semimetals including Dirac and Weyl semimetals, threefold degenerate spin-1 fermions, spin-3/2 Rarita-Schwinger-Weyl fermion semimetals and other exotic fermion semimetals. The formation of these gapless bound states are closely related to their Andreev specular reflection and propagating Andreev modes in $π$ phase superconductor-normal metal-superconductor (SNS) junctions. We further de…
In the past few years materials with protected gapless surface (edge) states have risen to the central stage of condensed matter physics. Almost all discussions centered around topological insulators and superconductors, which possess full quasiparticle gaps in the bulk. In this paper we argue systems with topological stable bulk nodes offer another class of materials with robust gapless surface states. Moreover the location of the bulk nodes determines the Miller index of the surfaces that show (or not show) such states. Measuring the spectroscopic signature of these zero modes allows a phase…
We develop a framework to analyze one-dimensional topological superconductors with charge conservation. In particular, we consider models with $N$ flavors of fermions and $(\mathbb{Z}_2)^N$ symmetry, associated with the conservation of the fermionic parity of each flavor. For a single flavor, we recover the result that a distinct topological phase with exponentially localized zero modes does not exist due to absence of a gap to single particles in the bulk. For $N>1$, however, we show that the ends of the system can host low-energy, exponentially-localized modes. The analysis can readily be ge…
Pairing symmetry is important to indentify the pairing mechanism. The analysis becomes particularly timely and important for the newly discovered iron-based multi-orbital superconductors. From group theory point of view we classified all pairing matrices (in the orbital space) that carry irreducible representations of the system. The quasiparticle gap falls into three categories: full, nodal and gapless. The nodal-gap states show conventional Volovik effect even for on-site pairing. The gapless states are odd in orbital space, have a negative superfluid density and are therefore unstable. In c…
The existence of edge states and zero energy modes in vortex cores is a hallmark of topologically nontrivial phases realized in various condensed matter systems such as the fractional quantum Hall states, p+ip superconductors, and Z_2 insulators (quantum spin Hall state). We examine this scenario for two dimensional noncentrosymmetric superconductors which allow the parity-mixing of Cooper pairs. It is found that even when the s-wave pairing gap is nonzero, provided that the superconducting gap of spin-triplet pairs is larger than that of spin-singlet pairs, gapless edge states and zero energy…
We study large arrays of mesoscopic junctions between gapless superconductors where the tunneling processes of both, particle-hole and Cooper, pairs give rise to a strongly retarded effective action which, contrary to the standard case, can not be readily characterized in terms of a local Josephson energy. This complexity is expected to arise in, e.g., the grain boundary and c-axis junctions in layered high-T_c superconductors. A new representation for describing collective phenomena in this system is introduced, and its phase diagram is discussed, alongside the electrical conductivity.
We propose the existence of a substantial charge current parallel to the interface between a noncentrosymmetric superconductor and a metallic ferromagnet. Our analysis focuses upon two complementary orbital-angular-momentum pairing states of the superconductor, exemplifying topologically nontrivial states which are gapped and gapless in the bulk, respectively. Utilizing a quasiclassical scattering theory, we derive an expression for the interface current in terms of Andreev reflection coefficients. Performing a systematic study of the current, we find stark qualitative differences between the …
We report intimate relations between topological properties of full gapped spin-triplet superconductors with time-reversal invariance and the Fermi surface topology in the normal states. An efficient method to calculate the Z2 invariants and the winding number for the spin-triplet superconductors is developed, and connections between these topological invariants and the Fermi surface structures in the normal states are pointed out. We also obtain a correspondence between the Fermi surface topology and gapless surface states in the superconducting states. The correspondence is inherent to spin-…
Tunneling conductance spectra of normal metal/insulator/superconductor (N/I/S) junctions are calculated to determine the potential of tunneling spectroscopy in investigations of topological superconductivity. Peculiar feature of topological superconductors is the formation of gapless edge states in them. Since the conductance of N/I/S junctions is sensitive to the formation of these edge states, topological superconductivity can be identified through edge-state detection. Herein, the effects of Fermi surface anisotropy and an applied magnetic field on the conductance spectra are analyzed to ga…
Helical Majorana edge states at the 2D boundaries of 3D topological superconductors can be gapped by a surface Zeeman field. Here we study the effect nested defects imprinted on the Zeeman field can have on the edge states. We demonstrate that depending on the configuration of the field we can induce dimensional reduction of gapless Majorana modes from 2D to 1D or quasi-0D at magnetic domain walls. We determine the nature of the Majorana localisation on these defects as a function of the magnitude and configuration of the Zeeman field. Finally, we observe a generalisation of the index theorem …
Recently it was demonstrated that the long-known transition between the gap and gapless superconducting states in the Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory of superconducting alloy with paramagnetic impurities is of the Lifshitz's type, i.e. at zero temperature this is the $2\frac12$ order phase transition. Since transitions of this kind in a normal metal are always associated to certain topological changes, then below we clarify the topological nature of the transition under consideration. Namely, we demonstrate that the topological invariant which in process of the transition undergoes the change is noth…
Coexistence of superconducting and normal components in nanowires at currents below the critical (a "mixed" state) would have important consequences for the nature and range of potential applications of these systems. For clean samples, it represents a genuine interaction effect, not seen in the mean-field theory. Here we consider properties of such a state in the gravity dual of a strongly coupled superconductor constructed from D3 and D5 branes. We find numerically uniform gapless solutions containing both components but argue that they are unstable against phase separation, as their free en…
Considering a $d$-wave superconductor being in proximity to a two-dimensional Weyl model, a topological superconductor with gapless edge states may be realized. We here demonstrate that the system can become topologically trivial when an additional d-density-wave order is also included. The edge states become gapped and may be detected in experiments. For this, the d-density-wave order can be detected experimentally, so that different scenarios for the pseudogap in high-T$_c$ superconductors may be distinguished. Moreover, this method may be used to detect various hidden orders through putting…
We investigate the extended quasi-particle states in the mixed state of d-wave superconductors on the basis of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. We prove that the quasi-particle eigen-states can be classified in terms of new topological quantum numbers which are related to the topological nature of the non-trivial phases of the quasi-particles. Numerical results for the quasi-particle eigen-states reveal the crossover behavior from gapless to gapped states as the flux density $B$ increases. In the strong field region quantum oscillations appear in the excitation energy of the quasi-particles.
In this letter, we investigate topological phases of full-gapped odd-parity superconductors, which are distinguished by the bulk topological invariants and the topologically protected gapless boundary states. Using the particle-hole symmetry, we introduce Z_2 invariants characterizing topological odd-parity superconductors without or with time-reversal invariance. For odd-parity superconductors, a combination of the inversion and the U(1) gauge symmetry is manifestly preserved, and the combined symmetry enables us to evaluate the Z_2 invariants from the knowledge of the Fermi surface structure…
Topological superconductors may undergo transitions between phases with different topological numbers which, like the case of topological insulators, are related to the presence of gapless (Majorana) edge states. In $\mathbb{Z}$ topological insulators the charge Hall conductivity is quantized, being proportional to the number of gapless states running at the edge. In a superconductor, however, charge is not conserved and, therefore, $σ_{xy}$ is not quantized, even in the case of a $\mathbb{Z}$ topological superconductor. Here it is shown that while the $σ_{xy}$ evolves continuously between dif…
