We study numerically and partly diagrammatically the renormalization of the electron-spin interaction or vertex in a two-dimensional one-band Hubbard model with spin-fluctuation momentum transfer ${\vv q}=(π,π)$. We find that the renormalized electron-spin vertex decreases quite generally with decreasing temperature at all doping densities. As a combination of two concurring effects, i.e. the decrease of the vertex and the increase of the spin susceptibility, the effective pairing interaction increases with lowering temperature in the intermediate-correlation regime, but {\it flattens off} in the strong-correlation regime. Our findings indicate that in the high-T$_c$ cuprates the pairing mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations is substantially reduced due to vertex corrections.
Triplon-mediated pairing and the superconducting gap structure in bilayer nickelates
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and School of Physics, Nanjing University（南京大学固体微结构物理国家重点实验室和物理学院）；Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University（南京大学先进微结构协同创新中心）；Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research（马克斯·普朗克固体研究所）
We present a self-consistent real space formulation of spin-fluctuation mediated d-wave pairing. By calculating all relevant inhomogeneous spin and charge susceptibilities in real space within the random phase approximation (RPA), we obtain the effective pairing interaction and study its spatial dependence near both local potential and hopping impurities. A remarkably large enhancement of the pairing interaction may be obtained near the impurity site. We discuss the relevance of our result to inhomogeneities observed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy on the surface of cuprate superconductors.
Effects of short-range correlations on the Coulomb screening, the phonons, and the pairing interactions are examined in electron-phonon systems. First, we derive a model Hamiltonian of Coulomb interactions which includes both the long-range part v_q and the short-range part U. It is found from the expression of the dielectric function that the strong on-site correlations weaken the Coulomb screening. Secondly, we examine the screened phonons and the interaction mediated by phonons. In a consistent picture, we derive an expression of the effective interaction which includes (1) the screened Cou…
To identify the microscopic mechanism of heavy-fermion Cooper pairing is an unresolved challenge in quantum matter studies; it may also relate closely to finding the pairing mechanism of high temperature superconductivity. Magnetically mediated Cooper pairing has long been the conjectured basis of heavy-fermion superconductivity but no direct verification of this hypothesis was achievable. Here, we use a novel approach based on precision measurements of the heavy-fermion band structure using quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging, to reveal quantitatively the momentum-space (k-space) structu…
The Hamiltonian describing a system of strongly correlated electrons coupled to dispersionless phonons was solved numerically for a ring of 8 atoms using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. It was found that electron correlation and electron-phonon coupling compete against each other, and strong electron correlations suppress the charge-ordered insulating state. This allows extended polarons to form in the strong electron-phonon coupling regime. It is shown that in this regime two polarons may form a pair via phonon mediated charge-fluctuation interaction. Based on the resu…
We consider the pairing induced in a strictly 2D electron gas (2DEG) by a proximate insulating film with polarizable localized excitations. Within a model of interacting 2D electrons and localized two-level systems, we calculate the critical temperature $T_c$ as a function of applied voltage and for different materials properties. Assuming that a sufficient carrier density can be induced in a field-gated device, we argue that superconductivity may be observable in such systems. $T_c$ is found to be a nonmonotonic function of both electric field and the excitation energy of the two-level system…
In many unconventional superconductors, nematic quantum fluctuations are strongest where the critical temperature is highest, inviting the conjecture that nematicity plays an important role in the pairing mechanism. Recently, Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Ni$_2$As$_2$ has been identified as a tunable nematic system that provides an ideal testing ground for this proposition. We therefore propose several sharp empirical tests, supported by quantitative calculations in a simple model of Ba$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Ni$_2$As$_2$. The most stringent predictions concern experiments under uniaxial strain, which has recently em…
We describe a quantum simulator for the Hubbard--Holstein model (HHM), comprising two dressed Rydberg atom species held in a monolayer by independent painted potentials, predicting that boson-mediated preformed pairing, and Berezinskii--Kosterlitz--Thouless (BKT) transition temperatures are experimentally accessible. The HHM is important for modeling the essential physics of unconventional superconductors. Experimentally realizable quantum simulators for HHMs are needed: (1) since HHMs are difficult to solve numerically and analytically, (2) to explore how competition between electron-phonon i…
We investigate the two-orbital Hubbard model, which reproduces the electron and hole Fermi surfaces in the iron pnictide superconductors, in the presence of the Jahn-Teller electron-phonon coupling by using the dynamical mean-field theory. When the intra- and inter-orbital Coulomb interactions, $U$ and $U'$, increase with $U=U'$, both the local spin and orbital susceptibilities, $χ_{s}$ and $χ_{o}$, increase with $χ_{s}=χ_{o}$ because of the spin-orbital symmetry. Due to the Hund's rule coupling $J$, $χ_{s}$ is enhanced and dominates over $χ_{o}$ resulting in the repulsive local pairing intera…
Pairing of mobile charge carriers in doped antiferromagnets plays a key role in the emergence of unconventional superconductivity. In these strongly correlated materials, the pairing mechanism is often assumed to be mediated by magnetic correlations, in contrast to phonon-mediated interactions in conventional superconductors. A precise understanding of the underlying mechanism in real materials is, however, still lacking, and has been driving experimental and theoretical research for the past 40 years. Early theoretical studies established the emergence of binding among dopants in ladder syste…
Following earlier work on electron or hole liquids flowing through assemblies with magnetic fluctuations, we have recently exposed a marked correlation of the superconducting temperature Tc, for non s-wave pairing materials, with coherence length xi and effective mass m*. The very recent study of Abanov et al. [Europhys. Lett. 54, 488 (2001)] and the prior investigation of Monthoux and Lonzarich [Phys. Rev. B 59, 14598 (1999)] have each focussed on the concept of a spin-fluctuation temperature T_sf, which again is intimately related to Tc. For the d-wave pairing via antiferromagnetic spin fluc…
Motivated by the proposed topological state in Cu$_x$Bi$_2$Se$_3$, we study the possibility of phonon-mediated odd-parity superconductivity in spin-orbit coupled systems with time-reversal and inversion symmetry. For such systems, we show that, in general, pure electron-phonon coupling can never lead to a triplet state with a higher critical temperature than the leading singlet state. The Coulomb pseudopotential, which is the repulsive part of the electron-electron interaction and is typically small in weakly correlated systems, is therefore critical to stabilizing the triplet state. We introd…
Dynamic cluster Monte Carlo calculations for the doped two-dimensional Hubbard model are used to study the irreducible particle-particle vertex responsible for $d_{x^2-y^2}$ pairing in this model. This vertex increases with increasing momentum transfer and decreases when the energy transfer exceeds a scale associated with the $Q=(π, π)$ spin susceptibility. Using an exact decomposition of this vertex into a fully irreducible two-fermion vertex and charge and magnetic exchange channels, the dominant part of the effective pairing interaction is found to come from the magnetic, spin S=1 exchange …
It is shown that unconventional nature of superconducting state of PrOs_4Sb_12, a Pr-based heavy electron compound with the filled-Skutterudite structure, can be explained in a unified way by taking into account the structure of the crystalline-electric-field (CEF) level, the shape of the Fermi surface determined by the band structure calculation, and a picture of the quasiparticles in f$^{2}$-configuration with magnetically singlet CEF ground state. Possible types of pairing are narrowed down by consulting recent experimental results. In particular, the chiral "p"-wave states such as p_x+ip_y…
We propose a mechanism whereby disorder can enhance the transition temperature Tc of an unconventional superconductor with pairing driven by exchange of spin fluctuations. The theory is based on a self-consistent real space treatment of pairing in the disordered one-band Hubbard model. It has been demonstrated before that impurities can enhance pairing by softening the spin fluctuations locally; here, we consider the competing effect of pair-breaking by the screened Coulomb potential also present. We show that, depending on the impurity potential strength and proximity to magnetic order, this …
To find out a primary determing factor of $T_{c}$ and a pairing mechanism in high-$T_{c}$ cuprates, we combine the muon spin relaxation results on $n_{s}/m^{*}$ (superconducting carrier density / effective mass), accumulated over the last 15 years, with the results from neutron and Raman scattering, STM, specific heat, Nernst effect and ARPES measurements. We identify the neutron magnetic resonance mode as an analogue of roton minimum in the superfluid $^{4}$He, and argue that $n_{s}/m^{*}$ and the resonance mode energy $\hbarω_{res}$ play a primary role in determining $T_{c}$ in the underdope…
We study superconductivity in the two-dimensional 16-band d-p model extracted from a tight-binding fit to the band structure of LaFeAsO, using the random phase approximation. When the intraorbital repulsion U is larger than the interorbital one U', an extended s-wave (s+--wave) pairing with sign reversal of order parameter is mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, while when U<U' another kind of s-wave (s++-wave) pairing without sign reversal is mediated by ferro-orbital fluctuations. The s++-wave pairing is enhanced due to the electron-phonon coupling and then can be expanded over t…
Recent experiments on the organic compound $κ-(BEDT-TTF)_2 Cu_2 (CN)_3$ raise the possibility that the system may be described as a quantum spin liquid. Here we propose a pairing state caused by the `Amperean' attractive interaction between spinons on a Fermi surface mediated by the U(1) gauge field. We show that this state can explain many of the observed low temperature phenomena and discuss testable consequences.
Theories based on the coupling between spin fluctuations and fermionic quasiparticles are among the leading contenders to explain the origin of high-temperature superconductivity, but estimates of the strength of this interaction differ widely. Here we analyze the charge- and spin-excitation spectra determined by angle-resolved photoemission and inelastic neutron scattering, respectively, on the same crystals of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.6. We show that a self-consistent description of both spectra can be obtained by adjusting a single parameter, the spin-fermion coupling c…
A microscopic theory of superconductivity in the extended Hubbard model which takes into account the intersite Coulomb repulsion and electron-phonon interaction is developed in the limit of strong correlations. The Dyson equation for normal and pair Green functions expressed in terms of the Hubbard operators is derived. The self-energy is obtained in the noncrossing approximation. In the normal state, antiferromagnetic short-range correlations result in the electronic spectrum with a narrow bandwidth. We calculate superconducting Tc by taking into account the pairing mediated by charge and spi…
Within a minimal model for the iron-based superconductors in which itinerant electrons interact with a band of local moments, we derive a a general conclusion for multi-band superconductivity. In a multi-band superconductor, due to the Adler theorem, the inter-band scattering dominates the intra-band scattering at the long wave length limit as long as both interactions are induced by Goldstone boson (which is magnon in our case) and the transfered momentum is nonzero. Such kind of interaction leads to a well-known sigh-reversing superconductivity even if the inter-band and intra-band interacti…
The d-wave pairing correlations along with spin correlation are calculated with quantum Monte Carlo method for the two-dimensional Hubbard model on lattice structures representing organic superconductors $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$X and (TMTSF)$_2$X. In both cases the pairing correlations for superconducting order parameters with nodes are found to be enhanced. The symmetry and the enhancement of the pairing is systematically correlated with the spin structure factor, suggesting a spin-fluctuation mediated pairing. We have further found that, as we deform the Fermi surface to make the system approach t…
In this work we introduce the possibility of unparticle mediated superconductivity. We discuss a theoretical scenario where it can emerge and show that a superconducting state is allowed by deriving and solving the gap equation for $s$-wave pairing of electrons interacting through the unparticle generalization of the Coulomb interaction. The dependence of the gap equation on the unparticle energy scale $Λ_{U}$ and the unparticle scaling dimension $d_{U}$ enables us to find a richer set of solutions compared to those of the conventional BCS paradigm. We discuss unconventional features within th…
We present a microscopic theory of fluctuation-mediated pairing mechanism in a two-dimensional extended Hubbard model. In contrast to conventional wisdom, odd-frequency spin-triplet pairing can be stabilized near the spin-density-wave critical point. Favorable conditions for the odd-frequency pairing are the presence of geometrical frustration and off-site Coulomb interaction.
In various multiorbital systems, the emergence of the orbital fluctuations and its role on the pairing mechanism attract increasing attention. To archive deep understanding on these issues, we perform the functional-renormalization-group (fRG) study for the two-orbital Hubbard model. The vertex corrections for the electron-boson coupling ($U$-VC), which are dropped in the Migdal-Eliashberg gap equation, are obtained by solving the RG equation. We reveal that the dressed electron-boson coupling for the charge-channel, $U_{eff}^c$, becomes much larger than the bare Coulomb interaction, $U^0$, du…
We report self-consistent calculations of the gap symmetry for the iron-based high-temperature superconductors using realistic small-q phonon mediated pairing potentials and four-band energy dispersions. When both electron and hole Fermi surface pockets are present, we obtain the nodeless $s_\pm$ state that was first encountered in a spin-fluctuations mechanism picture. Nodal gap structures such as $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $s_\pm+d_{x^2-y^2}$ and even a p-wave triplet state, are accessible upon doping within our phononic mechanism. Our results resolve the conflict between phase sensitive experiments …
In this review we demonstrate that superconducting pairing, mediated by the exchange of spin fluctuations, is a viable alternative to conventional phonon-mediated pairing. We discuss in detail the normal state properties, the spin fluctuation induced d-wave pairing and the superconducting behavior of a material near an antiferromagnetic instability, when the dominant interaction between quasiparticles is of electronic origin, and at energies much smaller than the fermionic bandwidth, can be viewed as being due to the emission and absorption of a collective, soft spin degree of freedom. We show…
We study the superconducting instabilities of singlet and triplet pairing in a two-dimensional Hubbard model on the basis of the third-order perturbation theory (TOPT). We investigate the effect of the vertex correction that is given by TOPT, comparing with the study with only the second-order effective interaction. In our results, a stable p-wave pairing state spreads from low to intermediate electron density. A dx2-y2-wave pairing is dominant for the high density near a half-filling. It is shown that the vertex correction plays an essential role in making the p-wave pairing state dominant.
Motivated by the observation of two distinct superconducting phases in the moiréless ABC-stacked rhombohedral trilayer graphene, we investigate the electron-acoustic-phonon coupling as a possible pairing mechanism. We predict the existence of superconductivity with the highest $T_c\sim 3$K near the Van Hove singularity. Away from the Van Hove singularity, $T_c$ remains finite in a wide range of doping. In our model, the $s$-wave spin-singlet and $f$-wave spin-triplet pairings yield the same $T_c$, while other pairing states have negligible $T_c$. Our theory provides a simple explanation for th…
We reveal an edge spin triplet $p-$wave superconducting pairing correlation in slightly doped zigzag graphene nanoribbons. By employing a method that combines random-phase approximation, the finite-temperature determinant quantum Monte Carlo approach, and the ground-state constrained-path quantum Monte Carlo method, it is shown that such a spin-triplet pairing is mediated by the ferromagnetic fluctuations caused by the flat band at the edge. The spin susceptibility and effective pairing interactions at the edge strongly increase as the on-site Coulomb interaction increases, indicating the impo…
We study the effects of phonon interaction on the superconducting pairing in the background of a d-wave gap, mediated by antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin fluctuations, using coupled BCS gap equations. We found that phonon interaction can induce a s-wave component to the d-wave gap in the (D+S) form with an interaction anisotropy and in the (D+$i$S) form without anisotropy, respectively. In either case, however, T$_c$ is not enhanced compared to the pure d-wave pairing without phonon interaction. On the other hand, anisotropic phonon interaction can dramatically enhance the d-wave pairing itself an…
We investigate the electronic state and the superconductivity in the 5-orbital Hubbard model for iron pnictides by using the dynamical mean-field theory in conjunction with the Eliashberg equation. The renormalization factor exhibits significant orbital dependence resulting in the large change in the band dispersion as observed in recent ARPES experiments. The critical interactions towards the magnetic, orbital and superconducting instabilities are suppressed as compared with those from the random phase approximation (RPA) due to local correlation effects. Remarkably, the s++-pairing phase due…
We show within the dynamical mean field theory that local multiplet interactions such as Hund's rule coupling produce local pairing superconductivity in the strongly correlated regime. Spin-triplet superconductivity driven by the Hund's rule coupling emerges from the pairing mediated by local fluctuations in pair exchange. In contrast to the conventional spin-triplet theories, the local orbital degrees of freedom has the anti-symmetric part of the exchange symmetry, leaving the spatial part as fully gapped and symmetric s-wave.
The Kondo lattice model enlarged by an antiferromagnetic coupling $J_{\rm AF}$ between the localized spins is here investigated using computational techniques. Our results suggest the existence of a d-wave superconducting phase close to half-filling mediated by antiferromagnetic fluctuations. This establishes a closer connection between theory and heavy fermion experiments than currently provided by the standard Kondo lattice model with $J_{\rm AF}$=0.
The pairing mechanism in iron-based superconductors is the subject of ongoing debate. Proximity to an antiferromagnetic phase suggests that pairing is mediated by spin fluctuations, but orbital fluctuations have also been invoked. The former typically favour a pairing state of extended s-wave symmetry with a gap that changes sign between electron and hole Fermi surfaces (s+-), while the latter yield a standard s-wave state without sign change (s++). Here we show that applying pressure to KFe2As2 induces a change of pairing state. The critical temperature Tc decreases with pressure initially, a…
We present a microscopic theory of fluctuation-mediated pairing mechanism in organic superconductors ${(TMTSF)}_{2}X$, where the experimentally observed coexistence of $2k_{F}$ charge fluctuation and $2k_{F}$ spin fluctuation is naturally taken into account. We have studied, within the random phase approximation, the extended Hubbard model at quarter-filling on a quasi-one-dimensional lattice, where we consider the off-site repulsive interaction up to third next nearest neighbors along with the on-site repulsion. The results show that spin-triplet $f$-wave-like pairing can be realized in this …
We consider the evolution of d-wave pairing, mediated by nearly critical spin fluctuations, with the coupling strength. We show that the onset temperature for pairing, T*, smoothly evolves between weak and strong coupling, passing through a broad maximum at intermediate coupling. At strong coupling, T* is of order the magnetic exchange energy J. We argue that for all couplings, pairing is confined to the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We also find that thermal spin fluctuations only modestly reduce T*, even at criticality, but they substantially smooth the gap anisotropy. The latter evolves wi…
We investigate phonon-mediated Cooper pairing in flat electronic band systems by solving the full-bandwidth multiband Eliashberg equations for superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene using a realistic tight-binding model. We find that Cooper pairing away from the Fermi level contributes decisively to superconductivity by enhancing the critical temperature and ensures a robust finite superfluid density. We show that this pairing yields particle-hole asymmetric superconducting domes in the temperature-gating phase diagram and gives rise to distinct spectroscopic signatures in t…
We have identified several important features in the neutron scattering data of cuprates, which are difficult to be explained in terms of d-wave and isotropic s-wave order parameters. Alternatively, we show that the neutron data are in quantitative agreement with an order parameter that has an extended s-wave (A_1g) symmetry and opposite sign in the bonding and antibonding electron bands formed within the Cu_{2}O_{4} bilayers. The extended s-wave has eight line nodes and change signs when a node is crossed. This A_1g pairing symmetry may be compatible with a charge fluctuation mediated pairing…
We show that including pairing and repulsion into the description of 1D spinless fermions, as in the domain wall theory of commensurate melting or the interacting Kitaev chain, leads, for strong enough repulsion, to a line of critical points in the eight vertex universality class terminating floating phases with emergent U(1) symmetry. For nearest-neighbor repulsion and pairing, the variation of the critical exponents along the line that can be extracted from Baxter's exact solution of the XYZ chain at $J_x=-J_z$ is fully confirmed by extensive DMRG simulations of the entire phase diagram, and…
In the framework of a multiorbital Hubbard model description of superconductivity, a matrix formulation of the superconducting pairing interaction that has been widely used is designed to treat spin, charge and orbital fluctuations within a random phase approximation (RPA). In terms of Feynman diagrams, this takes into account particle-hole ladder and bubble contributions as expected. It turns out, however, that this matrix formulation also generates additional terms which have the diagrammatic structure of vertex corrections. Here we examine these terms and discuss the relationship between th…
We study the contribution of the Higgs amplitude mode on the nonlinear optical response of superconductors beyond the BCS approximation by taking into account the retardation effect in the phonon-mediated attractive interaction. To evaluate the vertex correction in nonlinear optical susceptibilities that contains the effect of collective modes, we propose an efficient scheme which we call the "dotted DMFT" based on the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory (nonequilibrium DMFT) to go around the difficulty of solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation and analytical continuation. The vertex corre…
Superconductivity was recently discovered in rhombohedral trilayer graphene (RTG) in the absence of a moiré potential. Superconductivity is observed proximate to a metallic state with reduced isospin symmetry, but it remains unknown whether this is a coincidence or a key ingredient for superconductivity. Using a Hartree-Fock analysis and constraints from experiments, we argue that the symmetry breaking is inter-valley coherent (IVC) in nature. We evaluate IVC fluctuations as a possible pairing glue, and find that they lead to chiral unconventional superconductivity when the fluctuations are st…
We study the dynamics of the Cooper pairing across the T=0 phase diagram of the two-dimensional Hubbard Model, relevant for high-temperature superconductors, using a cluster extension of dynamical mean field theory. We find that the superconducting pairing function evolves from an unconventional form in the over-doped region into a more conventional boson-mediated retarded form in the under-doped region of the phase diagram. The boson, however, promotes the rise of a pseudo-gap in the electron density of states rather than a superconducting gap as in the standard theory of superconductivity. W…
We propose a microscopical theory of superconductivity in CuO$_2$ layer within the effective two-band Hubbard model in the strong correlation limit. By applying a projection technique for the matrix Green function in terms of the Hubbard operators, the Dyson equation is derived. It is proved that in the mean-field approximation d-wave superconducting pairing mediated by the conventional exchange interaction occurs. Allowing for the self-energy corrections due to kinematic interaction, a spin-fluctuation d-wave pairing is also obtained. $T\sb{c}$ dependence on the hole concentration and $\bf k$…
