Spontaneous helical order of a chiral p-wave superfluid confined in nano-scale channels

Abstract

Strong interactions that favor chiral p-wave pairing, combined with strong pair breaking by confining boundaries, are shown to lead to new equilibrium states with different broken symmetries. Based on a strong-coupling Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory that accurately accounts for the thermodynamics and phase diagram of the bulk phases of superfluid ${}^3$He, we predict new phases of superfluid ${}^3$He for confined geometries that spontaneously break rotational and translational symmetry in combination with parity and time-reversal symmetry. One of the newly predicted phases exhibits a unique combination of chiral and helical order that is energetically stable in cylindrical channels of radius approaching the Cooper pair coherence length, e.g. $R\sim 100\,\mbox{nm}$. Precise numerical mimimization of the GL free energy yields a broad region of stability of the helical phase as a function of pressure and temperature, in addition to three translationally invariant phases with distinct broken spin- and orbital rotation symmetries. The helical phase is stable at both high and low pressures and favored by boundaries with strong pair-breaking. We present calculations of transverse NMR frequency shifts as functions of rf pulse tipping angle, magnetic field orientation, and temperature as signatures of these broken symmetry phases.

arXiv comment6 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Evidence for a Spatially-Modulated Superfluid Phase of ${}^3$He under Confinement
• The Vortex Phase Diagram of Rotating Superfluid ${}^3$He-B
• Quasiclassical expressions for the free energy of superconducting systems
• Andreev Bound States in Superconducting Films and Confined Superfluid He-3
• Torsional chiral magnetic effect due to skyrmion textures in a Weyl superfluid ${}^3$He-A
• New Phases of Superfluid ${}^3$He Confined in Aerogels
• Half-Quantum Vortices in Nematic and Chiral Phases of ${}^3$He
• Weyl Fermions and Broken Symmetry Phases of Laterally Confined ${}^3$He Films
• NMR Frequency Shifts and Phase Identification in Superfluid ${}^3$He
• Helical spin texture in a thin film of superfluid ${}^3$He
• Designing edge currents using mesoscopic patterning in chiral d-wave superconductors