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Chiral Meissner effect in time-reversal invariant Weyl superconductors

Superconductivity 2024-03-07 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Weyl semimetals have nodes in their electronic structure at which electrons attain a definite chirality. Due to the chiral anomaly, the non-conservation of charges with given chirality, the axion term appears in their effective electromagnetic action. We determine how this affects the properties of time-reversal invariant Weyl {\it superconductors} (SCs) in the London regime. For type II SCs the axion coupling generates magnetic BB-fields transverse to vortices, which become unstable at a critical coupling so that a transition into type I SC ensues. In this regime an applied BB-field not only decays inside the SC within the London penetration depth, but the axion coupling generates an additional perpendicular field. Consequently, when penetrating into the bulk the BB-field starts to steadily rotate away from the applied field. At a critical coupling the screening of the magnetic field breaks down. The novel chiral superconducting state that emerges has a periodically divergent susceptibility that separates onsets of chiral Meissner regimes. The chiral anomaly thus leaves very crisp experimental signatures in structurally chiral Weyl SCs with an axion response.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.14262,
  title  = {Chiral Meissner effect in time-reversal invariant Weyl superconductors},
  author = {Vira Shyta and Jeroen van den Brink and Flavio S. Nogueira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.14262},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

v2: published version; 9 pages, 2 figures; revised version with improved explanations and three new appendices; references added