Ground state of the three-dimensional BCS d-wave superconductor

Abstract

We determine the mean-field ground state of the three-dimensional rotationally symmetric d-wave ($\ell =2$) superconductor at weak coupling. It is a non-inert state, invariant under the symmetry $C_2$ only, which breaks time reversal symmetry almost maximally, and features a high, but again less than maximal average magnetization. The state obtained by minimization of the expanded sixth-order Ginzburg--Landau free energy is found to be an excellent approximation to the true ground state. The coupling to a parasitic s-wave component has only a minuscule quantitative and no qualitative effect on the ground state.

6 revtex pages; typos corrected, references updated and added, close to published version