Elementary excitations in heavy-fermion superconductors
Rodriguez, Jose Pallerols
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/23888
Description
Title
Elementary excitations in heavy-fermion superconductors
Author(s)
Rodriguez, Jose Pallerols
Issue Date
1987
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Baym, Gordon A.
Department of Study
Physics
Discipline
Physics
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
elementary excitations
heavy-fermion superconductors
Cooper pairs
Language
en
Abstract
A theoretical study is presented of the elementary excitations in heavy-fermion superconductors, under the hypothesis that the Cooper pairs are in a relative p-wave or d-wave. First, all p-wave and d-wave states are classified in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling and crystal fields, which are important effects in heavy-fermions. It is found that p-wave states generally have either a gap on the entire Fermi surface or a gap with point nodes, as in the axial state, while d-wave states generally have a gap with lines of nodes, as in the polar state. Secondly, the specific heat, ultrasonic attenuation and thermal conductivity that result from the qausiparticle excitations out of such states are calculated. The gapless states of the axial and polar type produce low temperature power laws for these quantities that reflect the density of low-lying qausiparticle excitations. These results are then compared to the experimentally observed power laws in heavy-fermion superconductors. Finally, we study hydrodynamic collective modes associated with the rotational degrees of freedom of the p-wave or d-wave order parameter, called spin-orbit modes. These modes result in anomalous electron paramagnetic resonance and neutron scattering. In addition, they couple to sound propagation and produce anomalous absorption peaks. It is suggested that such a loss mechanism accounts for the sound attenuation peak observed in superconducting UBe13.
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