Topology and symmetry of surface Majorana arcs in cyclic superconductors

Takeshi Mizushima, Muneto Nitta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study the topology and symmetry of surface Majorana arcs in superconductors with nonunitary "cyclic" pairing. Cyclic p-wave pairing may be realized in a cubic or tetrahedral crystal, while it is a candidate for the interior P23 superfluids of neutron stars. The cyclic state is an admixture of full gap and nodal gap with eight Weyl points and the low-energy physics is governed by itinerant Majorana fermions. We here show the evolution of surface states from Majorana cone to Majorana arcs under rotation of surface orientation. The Majorana cone is protected solely by an accidental spin rotation symmetry and fragile against spin-orbit coupling, while the arcs are attributed to two topological invariants: the first Chern number and one-dimensional winding number. Lastly, we discuss how topologically protected surface states inherent to the nonunitary cyclic pairing can be captured from surface probes in candidate compounds, such as U1-xThxBe13. We examine tunneling conductance spectra for two competitive scenarios in U1-xThxBe13 - the degenerate Eu scenario and the accidental scenario.

Original languageEnglish
Article number024506
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume97
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018 Jan 9

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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