Topological odd-parity superconductors

Odd-parity topological superconductor with nematic

Topological Classification of Odd-Parity Sphaleron Deformations

We discuss topological aspects of the electroweak sphaleron and its oddparity deformations. We demonstrate that they are uniquely classified in terms of their odd and even-parity pure gauge field behaviour at spatial infinity. Fermion level crossing occurs only for odd-parity configurations which are topologically disconnected from the vacuum. They contribute to the high temperature unsuppresse...

Odd parity and line nodes in heavy-fermion superconductors.

Group theory arguments have demonstrated that a general odd parity order parameter cannot have line nodes in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. In this paper, it is shown that these arguments do not hold on the kz = π/c zone face of a hexagonal close packed lattice. In particular, three of the six odd parity representations vanish identically on this face. This has potential relevance to the ...

Odd-parity topological superconductor with nematic order: Application to CuxBi2Se3

CuxBi2Se3 was recently proposed as a promising candidate for time-reversal-invariant topological superconductors. In this work, we argue that the unusual anisotropy of the Knight shift observed by Zheng and co-workers (unpublished), taken together with specific heat measurements, provides strong support for an unconventional odd-parity pairing in the two-dimensional Eu representation of the D3d...

Superconductors with Topological Order

We propose a mechanism of superconductivity in which the order of the ground state does not arise from the usual Landau mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking but is rather of topological origin. The low-energy effective theory is formulated in terms of emerging gauge fields rather than a local order parameter and the ground state is degenerate on topologically non-trivial manifolds. The si...