Pair density wave superconducting states and statistical mechanics of dimers

Soto Garrido, Rodrigo Andres

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Description

Title

Pair density wave superconducting states and statistical mechanics of dimers

Author(s)

Soto Garrido, Rodrigo Andres

Issue Date

2015-06-30

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Fradkin, Eduardo H.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Stone, Michael

Committee Member(s)

• Cooper, S. Lance
• Di Francesco, Philippe

Department of Study

Physics

Discipline

Physics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• High temperature superconductivity
• Pair density wave
• Arctic curves
• Aztec diamond
• Topological superconductors

Abstract

The following thesis is divided in two main parts. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are devoted to the study of the so called pair-density-wave (PDW) superconducting state and some of its connections to electronic liquid crystal (ELC) phases, its topological aspects in a one dimensional model and its appearance in a quasi-one dimensional system. On the other hand, chapter 5 is focused on the investigation of the classical statistical mechanics properties of dimers, in particular, the dimer model on the Aztec diamond graph and its relation with the octahedron equation. In chapter 2 we present a theory of superconducting states where the Cooper pairs have a nonzero center-of-mass momentum, inhomogeneous superconducting states known as a pair-density-waves (PDWs) states. We show that in a system of spin-1/2 fermions in two dimensions in an electronic nematic spin-triplet phase where rotational symmetry is broken in both real and spin space PDW phases arise naturally in a theory that can be analysed using controlled approximations. We show that several superfluid phases that may arise in this phase can be treated within a controlled BCS mean field theory, with the strength of the spin-triplet nematic order parameter playing the role of the small parameter of this theory. We find that in a spin-triplet nematic phase, in addition to a triplet p-wave and spin-singlet d-wave (or s depending on the nematic phase) uniform superconducting states, it is also possible to have a d-wave (or s) PDW superconductor. The PDW phases found here can be either unidirectional, bidirectional, or tridirectional depending on the spin-triplet nematic phase and which superconducting channel is dominant. In addition, a triple-helix state is found in a particular channel. We show that these PDW phases are present in the weak-coupling limit, in contrast to the usual Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phases, which require strong coupling physics in addition to a large magnetic field (and often both). In chapter 3 we show that the pair-density-wave (PDW) superconducting state emergent in extended Heisenberg-Hubbard models in two-leg ladders is topological in the presence of an Ising spin symmetry and supports a Majorana zero mode (MZM) at an open boundary and at a junction with a uniform d-wave one-dimensional superconductor. Similarly to a conventional finite-momentum paired state, the order parameter of the PDW state is a charge-2e field with finite momentum. However, the order parameter here is a quartic electron operator and conventional mean-field theory cannot be applied to study this state. We use bosonization to show that the 1D PDW state has a MZM at a boundary. This superconducting state is an exotic topological phase supporting Majorana fermions with finite-momentum pairing fields and charge-4e superconductivity. In chapter 4 we provide a quasi-one-dimensional model which can support a PDW state. The model consists of an array of strongly-interacting one-dimensional systems, where the one-dimensional systems are coupled to each other by local interactions.Within the interchain mean-field theory (MFT), we find several SC states from the model, including a conventional uniform SC state, PDW SC state, and a coexisting phase of the uniform SC and PDW states. In this quasi-1D regime we can treat the strong correlation physics essentially exactly using bosonization methods and the crossover to the 2D system by means of interchain MFT. The resulting critical temperatures of the SC phases generically exhibit a power-law scaling with the coupling constants of the array, instead of the essential singularity found in weak-coupling BCS-type theories. Electronic excitations with an open Fermi surface, which emerge from the electronic Luttinger liquid systems below their crossover temperature to the Fermi liquid, are then coupled to the SC order parameters via the proximity effect. From the Fermi surface thus coupled to the SC order parameters, we calculate the quasiparticle spectrum in detail. We show that the quasiparticle spectrum can be fully gapped or nodal in the uniform SC phase and also in the coexisting phase of the uniform SC and PDW parameters. In the pure PDW state, the excitation spectrum has a reconstructed Fermi surface in the form of Fermi pockets of Bogoliubov quasiparticles. In chapter 5 we study the octahedron relation (also known as the A∞ T-system), obeyed in particular by the partition function for dimer coverings of the Aztec Diamond graph. For a suitable class of doubly periodic initial conditions, we find exact solutions with a particularly simple factorized form. For these, we show that the density function that measures the average dimer occupation of a face of the Aztec graph, obeys a system of linear recursion relations with periodic coefficients. This allows us to explore the thermodynamic limit of the corresponding dimer models and to derive exact “arctic” curves separating the various phases of the system.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Rodrigo Andres Soto Garrido

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