English

Topological insulator in the core of the superconducting vortex in graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2010-02-10 v2 Superconductivity High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The core of the vortex in a general superconducting order parameter in graphene is argued to be ordered, with the possible order parameters forming the algebra U(1) X Cl(3), where Cl(3) is the three dimensional Clifford algebra. A sufficiently strong Zeeman coupling of the magnetic field of the vortex to the electron spin breaks the degeneracy in the core in favor of the anomalous quantum Hall state. I consider a variety of superconducting condensates on the honeycomb lattice and demonstrate the surprising universality of this result. A way to experimentally determine the outcome of the possible competition between different types of orders in the core is proposed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.4231,
  title  = {Topological insulator in the core of the superconducting vortex in graphene},
  author = {Igor F. Herbut},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.4231},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Four revtex pages. New discussion on competition between core orders, extension to finite-T added, typos corrected, new references, streamlined presentation. Published version