We review recent theoretical progress in understanding spatially uniform $s$-wave superconductivity which arises from a fermion-fermion interaction, which is repulsive on the Matsubara axis, where it is real, but does depend on the transferred frequency. Such a situation holds, e.g., for systems with a screened Coulomb and retarded electron-phonon interaction. We show that despite repulsion, superconductivity is possible in a certain range of system parameters. However, at $T=0$ the gap function on the Matsubara axis, $Δ(ω_m)$, must pass through zero and change sign at least once. These zeros of $Δ(ω_m)$ have a topological interpretation in terms of dynamical vortices, and their presence imposes a constraint on the variation of the phase of the gap function along the real frequency axis, which can potentially be extracted from ARPES and other measurements. We discuss how superconductivity vanishes when the repulsion becomes too strong, and obtain a critical line which terminates at $T=0$ at a quantum-critical point for superconductivity. We show that the behavior of the gap function near this point is highly non-trivial. In particular, an infinitesimally small $Δ(ω_m)$ contains a singular $δ-$function piece $ω_m δ(ω_m)$. We argue that near the critical point superconductivity may be a mixed state with even-frequency and odd-frequency gap components.
We introduce a new and general mechanism for superconductivity in Fermi systems with strong repulsive interaction. Because kinetic terms are small compared to the bare repulsion, the dynamic of charge carriers is constrained by the the presence of other nearby carriers. By treating kinetic terms as a perturbation around the atomic limit, we show that pairing can be induced by correlated multi-particle tunneling processes that favor two itinerant carriers to be close together. Our analytically-controlled theory provides a quantitative formula relating $T_c$ to microscopic parameters, with maxim…
We provide results for the leading superconducting instabilities for a model pertaining to Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ obtained within spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity in the very weak-coupling limit. The theory incorporates spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects both in the band structure and in the pairing kernel in the form of associated magnetic anisotropies. The leading superconducting phase is found to be $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and a nodal $s$-wave state. However, the odd-parity helical solution can become leading either for small SOC and Hund's coupling $J$ in the weak $U$-limit, or in the opposite limi…
We study the superconducting order in a two-dimensional square lattice Hubbard model with weak repulsive interactions, subject to a Zeeman field and weak Rashba spin-orbit interactions. Diagonalizing the non-interacting Hamiltonian leads to two separate bands, and by deriving an effective low-energy interaction we find the mean field gap equations for the superconducting order parameter on the bands. Solving the gap equations just below the critical temperature, we find that superconductivity is caused by Kohn-Luttinger type interaction, while the pairing symmetry of the bands are indirectly a…
Motivated by a scarcity of simple and analytically tractable models of superconductivity from strong repulsive interactions, we introduce a simple tight-binding lattice model of fermions with repulsive interactions that exhibits unconventional superconductivity (beyond BCS theory). The model resembles an idealized conductor-dielectric-conductor trilayer. The Cooper pair consists of electrons on opposite sides of the dielectric, which mediates the attraction. In the strong coupling limit, we use degenerate perturbation theory to show that the model reduces to a superconducting hard-core Bose-Hu…
In a short review-article we first discuss the results, which are mainly devoted to the generalizations of the famous Kohn-Luttinger mechanism of superconductivity in purely repulsive fermion systems at low electron densities. In the context of repulsive-U Hubbard model and Shubin-Vonsovsky model we consider briefly the superconducting phase diagrams and the symmetries of the order parameter in novel strongly correlated electron systems including idealized monolayer and bilayer graphene. We stress that purely repulsive fermion systems are mainly the subject of unconventional low-temperature su…
Superconductivity from purely repulsive interactions in the strong coupling approach : Application of the SU(2) slave-rotor theory to the Hubbard model
The discovery of superconductivity in layered vanadium-based kagome metals $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($A$: K, Rb, Cs) has added a new family of materials to the growing class of possible unconventional superconductors. However, the nature of the superconducting pairing in these materials remains elusive. We present a microscopic theoretical study of the leading superconducting instabilities on the kagome lattice based on spin- and charge-fluctuation mediated Cooper pairing. The applied methodology includes effects of both on-site and nearest-neighbor repulsive Coulomb interactions. Near the upper van Hov…
Specific heat of Ca$_{0.32}$Na$_{0.68}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ single crystals: unconventional s$_\pm$ multi-band superconductivity with intermediate repulsive interband coupling and sizable attractive intraband couplings
报道了高质量重空穴掺杂超导体Ca $_{0.32}$ Na $_{0.68}$ Fe $_2$ As $_2$单晶的低温比热研究。该化合物表现出体超导性，转变温度为$T_c \approx 34$ \，K，这是明显的从磁化，运输，和比热测量。零场数据表明，在正常状态下的索末菲系数$γ\approx 53$ mJ/mol K $^{2}$的显着的电子比热。使用多带Eliashberg分析，我们证明了在超导状态下的零场比热的依赖性是很好地描述了一个三带模型与非常规的s $_\pm$配对对称性和间隙幅度$Δ_i$约为2.35，7.48，和-7.50 meV。我们的分析表明，一个不可忽视的吸引力带内耦合，这有助于显着相对较高的$T_c$值。费米表面平均的排斥和吸引耦合强度是可比的大小和外部的强耦合限制经常采用描述高$T_c$铁磷属元素化物超导体。我们进一步推断总质量重整化的顺序为5，包括相关性和电子玻色子相互作用的影响。
We study a three-dimensional single-band repulsive Hubbard model at weak coupling. We establish the superconducting phase diagram in the parameter space of the chemical potential and the out-of-plane hopping strength. The model continuously connects the Hubbard model in two and three dimensions. We confirm previously-established results in these limits, and identify a rich structure of competing order parameters in between. Specifically, we find five types of $p$- and $d$-wave orders. In several regions of the phase diagram, even when the Fermi surface is a corrugated cylinder, the ground stat…
We study the effect of laser driving on a minimal model for a hexagonal two-dimensional material with broken inversion symmetry. Through the application of circularly polarised light and coupling to a thermal free electron bath, the system is driven into a nonequilibrium steady state with asymmetric, nonthermal carrier populations in the two valleys. We show that, in this steady state, interband superconducting correlations between electrons can develop independent of the sign of the electron-electron interactions. We discuss how our results apply, for example, to transition metal dichalcogeni…
We study the emergence of superconductivity in rhombohedral trilayer graphene due purely to the long-range Coulomb repulsion. This repulsive-interaction-driven phase in rhombohedral trilayer graphene is significantly different from those found in twisted bilayer and trilayer graphenes. In the latter case, the nontrivial momentum-space geometry of the Bloch wavefunctions leads to an effective attractive electron-electron interaction; this allows for less modulated order parameters and for spin-singlet pairing. In rhombohedral trilayer graphene, we instead find spin-triplet superconductivity wit…
We have rigorously shown that a strong Hubbard repulsion can cause superconductivity. The model, which has a particular set of local symmetries, manifests the phase diagram of many unconventional superconductors; anti-ferromagnetism paramagnetism, superconductivity, and even ferromagnetism are all observed. The key technique in the analysis is an exact non-linear fermion transformation, which preserves the correlated motion of electrons while removing the strong interactions. Using resolvent formalism, it is exactly shown that two holes at the Mott point bind to form a localised Cooper pair. A…
Fractal Hofstadter bands have become widely accessible with the advent of moiré superlattices, opening the door to studies of the effect of interactions in these systems. In this work we employ a renormalization group (RG) analysis to demonstrate that the combination of repulsive interactions with the presence of a tunable manifold of Van Hove singularities provides a new mechanism for driving unconventional superconductivity in Hofstadter bands. Specifically, the number of Van Hove singularities at the Fermi energy can be controlled by varying the flux per unit cell and the electronic filling…
We study the superconducting instability and the resulting superconducting states in a two-dimensional repulsive Fermi gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling at low electron density (namely the Fermi energy $E_F$ is lower than the energy $E_R$ of the Dirac point induced by Rashba coupling). We find that superconductivity is enhanced as the dimensionless Fermi energy $ε_F$ ($ε_F\equiv E_F/E_R$) decreases, due to the following two reasons. First, the density of states at $ε_F$ increases as $1/\sqrt{ε_F}$. Second, the particle-hole bubble becomes more anisotropic, resulting in an increasing effectiv…
We discuss superconducting pairing in a narrow conduction band sandwiched between unoccupied and occupied bands, an arrangement that enables an unconventional pairing mechanism governed by Coulomb repulsion. Pairing interaction originates from repulsion-assisted scattering between far-out pair states in the higher-energy bands and those at the Fermi level. Optimizing the bandstructure design and carrier density in order to bring plasma frequency below the bandgap renders the repulsion unscreened for the processes with a large frequency transfer. This allows the pairing to fully benefit from th…
Fermion systems with flat bands can boost superconductivity by enhancing the density of states at the Fermi level. We use quasiexact numerical methods to show that repulsive interactions between spinless fermions in a one-dimensional (1D) flat-band system, the Creutz ladder, give a finite pairing energy that increases with repulsion, though charge quasi-order (QO) remains dominant. Adding an attractive component shifts the balance in favor of superconductivity and the interplay of two flat bands further yields a remarkable enhancement of superconductivity, well outside of known paradigms for 1…
We discuss a pairing mechanism in interacting two-dimensional multipartite lattices that intrinsically leads to a second order topological superconducting state with a spatially modulated gap. When the chemical potential is close to Dirac points, oppositely moving electrons on the Fermi surface undergo an interference phenomenon in which the Berry phase converts a repulsive electron-electron interaction into an effective attraction. The topology of the superconducting phase manifests as gapped edge modes in the quasiparticle spectrum and Majorana Kramers pairs at the corners. We present symmet…
Using exact quantum Monte Carlo method, we examine the recent novel electronic states seen in magic-angle graphene superlattices. From the Hubbard model on a double-layer honeycomb lattice with a rotation angle $θ=1.08^{\circ}$, we reveal that an antiferromagnetically ordered Mott insulator emerges beyond a critical $U_c$ at half filling, and with a small doping, the pairing with $d+id$ symmetry dominates over other pairings at low temperature. The effective $d+id$ pairing interaction strongly increase as the on-site Coulomb interaction increases, indicating that the superconductivity is drive…
Interplay of Pomeranchuk instability (spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Fermi surface) and d-wave superconductivity is studied for the repulsive Hubbard model on the square lattice with the dynamical mean field theory combined with the fluctuation exchange approximation (FLEX+DMFT). We show that the four-fold symmetric Fermi surface becomes unstable against a spontaneous distortion into two-fold near the van Hove filling, where the symmetry of superconductivity coexisting with the Pomeranchuk distorted Fermi surface is modified from the d-wave pairing to (d+s)-wave. By systematically shifti…
Quench of chiral superconductivity by quantum phase fluctuations in twisted cuprate bilayers
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学物理系）；Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory（松山湖材料实验室）
Topological Odd-Parity Superconductivity at Type-II 2D Van Hove Singularities
我们研究了范霍夫奇点（VHS）处二维电子系统中弱排斥相互作用引起的非常规超导电性，其中态密度呈对数发散。我们定义了两种类型的VHS。对于I型VHS的系统，弱排斥相互作用一般诱导非常规单重态配对。然而，更有趣的是，对于II型VHS，重整化群（RG）分析表明，当费米面没有充分嵌套时，弱排斥相互作用有利于三重态配对（例如p波）。对于遵守四对称性的II型VHS系统，拓扑超导性（手性p+ip配对或时间反演不变的$Z_2$ p+ip配对）通常发生。我们还将讨论我们的研究的相关性材料，包括最近发现的超导体LaO $_{1-x}$ F $_x$ BiS $_2$，可以调整到II型VHS掺杂。
Hund's pairing refers to Cooper pairing generated by onsite interactions that become attractive due to large Hund's exchange $J$. This is possible in multiorbital systems even when all local bare interactions are repulsive, since attraction in specific channels are given by certain linear combinations of interaction parameters. On the other hand, pairing processes such as the exchange of spin fluctuations, are also present. We compare these two mechanisms on an equal footing using electronic bands appropriate for different classes of multiorbital systems over a wide range of interaction parame…
Bilayer graphene twisted by a small angle shows a significant charge modulation away from neutrality, as the charge in the narrow bands near the Dirac point is mostly localized in the regions of the Moiré pattern with $AA$ stacking. The resulting electrostatic potential gives rise to the dominant contribution to the electron-electron interaction within this low energy band, which becomes significantly distorted. The changes in the band structure are described by new local interactions, and lead to an assisted electron-hopping process. These couplings favor superconductivity at certain fillings…
Here we have developed a FLEX+DMFT formalism, where the symmetry properties of the system are incorporated by constructing a SO(4) generalization of the conventional fluctuation-exchange approximation (FLEX) coupled self-consistently to the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). Along with this line, we emphasize that the SO(4) symmetry is the lowest group-symmetry that enables us to investigate superconductivity and antiferromagnetism on an equal footing. We have imposed this by decomposing the electron operator into auxiliary fermionic and slave-boson constituents that respect SU(2)$_{\rm spin}…
