No Arabic abstract
The generalization of the Nelson-Halperin-Young theory of 2D melting to the dynamical 2+1D quantum case is presented. The bosonic quantum crystal dualizes in superfluids or superconductors exhibiting nematic liquid crystalline orders, corresponding with bose condensates of dislocations exhibiting a dual shear Meissner-Higgs mechanism. The topologically ordered nematic phase suggested by Lammert, Toner and Rokshar finds a simple interpretation in this framework. The ordered nematic is a true quantum phase: the dynamical glide principle interferes with the effect that the phonon spectrum of the crystal re-emerges in the direction orthogonal to the director. Novel insights follow from the duality on the fundamental nature of superfluidity and superconductivity. The superfluid can be viewed as an elastic medium having lost its rigidity against shear stresses. Upon dualizing the electrically charged crystal the electromagnetic Meissner phase is recovered, showing peculiar screening current oscillations when the shear penetration depth becomes larger than the London penetration depth.
We study the properties of $s$-wave superconductivity induced around a nematic quantum critical point in two-dimensional metals. The strong Landau damping and the Cooper pairing between incoherent fermions have dramatic mutual influence on each other, and hence should be treated on an equal footing. This problem is addressed by analyzing the self-consistent Dyson-Schwinger equations for the superconducting gap and Landau damping rate. We solve the equations at zero temperature without making any linearization, and show that the superconducting gap is maximized at the quantum critical point and decreases rapidly as the system departs from this point. The interplay between nematic fluctuation and an additional pairing interaction, caused by phonon or other boson mode, is also investigated. The total superconducting gap generated by such interplay can be several times larger than the direct sum of the gaps separately induced by these two pairing interactions. This provides a promising way to achieve remarkable enhancement of superconductivity.
Nematic phases, breaking spontaneously rotational symmetry, provide for ubiquitously observed states of matter in both classical and quantum systems. These nematic states may be further classified by their $N$--fold rotational invariance described by cyclic groups $C_N$ in 2+1D. Starting from the space groups of underlying $2d$ crystals, we present a general classification scheme incorporating $C_N$ nematic phases that arise from dislocation-mediated melting and discuss the conventional tensor order parameters. By coupling the $O(2)$ matter fields to the $Z_N$ lattice gauge theory, an unified $O(2)/Z_N$ lattice gauge theory is constructed in order to describe all these nematic phases. This lattice gauge theory is shown to reproduce the $C_N$ nematic-isotropic liquid phase transitions and contains an additional deconfined phase. Finally, using our $O(2)/Z_N$ gauge theory framework, we discuss phase transitions between different $C_N$ nematics.
Fascinating new phases of matter can emerge from strong electron interactions in solids. In recent years, a new exotic class of many-body phases, described by generalized electromagnetism of symmetric rank-2 electric and magnetic fields and immobile charge excitations dubbed fractons, has attracted wide attention. Beside interesting properties in their own right, they are also closely related to gapped fracton quantum orders, new phases of dipole-coversing systems, quantum information, and quantum gravity. However, experimental realization of the rank-2 U(1) gauge theory is still absent, and even known practical experimental routes are scarce. In this work we propose a scheme of coupled optical phonons and nematics as well as several of its concrete experimental constructions. They can realize the electrostatics sector of the rank-2 U(1) gauge theory. A great advantage of our scheme is that it requires only basic ingredients of phonon and nematic physics, hence can be applied to a wide range of nematic matters from liquid crystals to electron orbitals. We expect this work will provide crucial guidance for the realization of rank-2 U(1) and fracton states of matter on a variety of platforms.
Nematic superconductivity is a novel class of superconductivity characterized by spontaneous rotational-symmetry breaking in the superconducting gap amplitude and/or Cooper-pair spins with respect to the underlying lattice symmetry. Doped Bi2Se3 superconductors, such as CuxBi2Se3, SrxBi2Se3, and NbxBi2Se3, are considered as candidates for nematic superconductors, in addition to the anticipated topological superconductivity. Recently, various bulk probes, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, specific heat, magnetotransport, magnetic torque, and magnetization, have consistently revealed two-fold symmetric behavior in their in-plane magnetic-field-direction dependence, although the underlying crystal lattice possesses three-fold rotational symmetry. More recently, nematic superconductivity is directly visualized using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. In this short review, we summarize the current researches on the nematic behavior in superconducting doped Bi2Se3 systems, and discuss issues and perspectives.
While most solids expand when heated, some materials show the opposite behavior: negative thermal expansion (NTE). In polymers and biomolecules, NTE originates from the entropic elasticity of an ideal, freely-jointed chain. The origin of NTE in solids has been widely believed to be different. Our neutron scattering study of a simple cubic NTE material, ScF3, overturns this consensus. We observe that the correlation in the positions of the neighboring fluorine atoms rapidly fades on warming, indicating an uncorrelated thermal motion constrained by the rigid Sc-F bonds. This leads us to a quantitative theory of NTE in terms of entropic elasticity of a floppy network crystal, which is in remarkable agreement with experimental results. We thus reveal the formidable universality of the NTE phenomenon in soft and hard matter.