Stabilizing Even-Parity Chiral Superconductivity in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$

Abstract

Strontium ruthenate (Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$) has long been thought to host a spin-triplet chiral $p$-wave superconducting state. However, the singletlike response observed in recent spin-susceptibility measurements casts serious doubts on this pairing state. Together with the evidence for broken time-reversal symmetry and a jump in the shear modulus $c_{66}$ at the superconducting transition temperature, the available experiments point towards an even-parity chiral superconductor with $k_z(k_x\pm i{k}_y)$-like $E_g$ symmetry, which has consistently been dismissed based on the quasi-two-dimensional electronic structure of Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$. Here, we show how the orbital degree of freedom can encode the two-component nature of the $E_g$ order parameter, allowing for a local orbital-antisymmetric spin-triplet state that can be stabilized by on-site Hund's coupling. We find that this exotic $E_g$ state can be energetically stable once a complete, realistic three-dimensional model is considered, within which momentum-dependent spin-orbit coupling terms are key. This state naturally gives rise to Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces.

6+10 pages, 5 figures