Nodal superconducting gap structure and topological surface states of UTe2

Abstract

The heavy-fermion compound UTe2 is a candidate for hosting intrinsic spin-triplet superconductivity. At present, however, the type of triplet Cooper pairing realized in UTe2 remains unknown, which calls for further experimental and theoretical investigations. In this paper, we develop a microscopic minimal model for the superconducting phases of UTe2 based on recent findings in the description of its low-energy normal state electronic properties. We apply the resulting theoretical model to extract the nodal gap properties of the allowed superconducting ground states, and determine their associated topological surface states on the experimentally relevant (0-11) cleave plane. We find that the Fermi surface of UTe2 enforces additional point nodes in excess to the point nodes imposed by symmetry, which may reconcile several experiments seemingly in conflict with B2u or B3u pairing symmetries. Furthermore, we map out the in-gap Majorana surface-bound modes existing on the (0-11) surface, and discuss their potential for additional insight into the pairing structure of UTe2.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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