Monopole versus spherical harmonic superconductors: Topological repulsion, coexistence, and stability

Abstract

The monopole harmonic superconductor (SC), proposed in doped Weyl semimetals as a pairing between the Fermi surfaces enclosing the Weyl points, is rather unusual, as it features the monopole charge inherited from the parent metallic phase. However, this state can compete with more conventional spherical harmonic pairings, such as an s wave. We here demonstrate, within the framework of the weak-coupling mean-field BCS theory, that the monopole and a conventional spherical harmonic SC quite generically coexist, while the repulsion can take place when the absolute value of the monopole charge matches the angular momentum quantum number of the spherical harmonic. As we show, this feature is a direct consequence of the topological nature of the monopole SC, and we dub it topological repulsion. We illustrate the above principle with the example of the conventional s- and (px±ipy)-wave pairings competing with the monopole SC Y−1,1,0(θ,ϕ), which coexist in a finite region of the parameter space and repel, respectively. Furthermore, the s-wave pairing is more stable both when the chemical potentials at the nodes are unequal and in the presence of pointlike charged impurities. Since the phase transition is discontinuous, close to the phase boundary, we predict that the Majorana surface modes at the interfaces between domains featuring the monopole and the trivial phases, such as an s-wave, will be the experimental signature of the monopole SC.

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