On the Excitations of a Balian–Werthamer Superconductor

J. A. Sauls*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

My contribution to this collection of articles in honor of David Lee and John Reppy on their 90th birthdays is a reflection on the remarkable phenomenology of the excitation spectra of superfluid 3He, in particular the B-phase which was identified by NMR and acoustic spectroscopy as the Balian–Werthamer state shown in 1963 to be the ground state of a spin-triplet, p-wave superconductor within weak-coupling BCS theory. The superfluid phases of 3He provide paradigms for electronic superconductors with broken space-time symmetries and non-trivial ground-state topology. Indeed, broken spin- and orbital rotation symmetries lead to a rich spectrum of collective modes of the order parameter that can be detected using NMR, acoustic and microwave spectroscopies. The topology of the BW state implies its low-temperature, low-energy transport properties are dominated by gapless Majorana modes confined on boundaries or interfaces. Given the central role the BW state played I discuss the acoustic and electromagnetic signatures of the BW state, the latter being relevant if an electronic analog of superfluid 3He-B is realized.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)87-118
Number of pages32
JournalJournal of Low Temperature Physics
Volume208
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2022

Keywords

  • Anderson–Higgs mechanism
  • Bulk-edge correspondence
  • Collective modes
  • Higgs Boson
  • Majorana modes
  • Nambu–Goldstone modes
  • Spontaneous symmetry breaking
  • Superfluid He
  • Topological superconductor
  • Unconventional superconductivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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