Duality and the vibrational modes of a Cooper-pair Wigner crystal

Abstract

When quantum fluctuations in the phase of the superconducting order parameter destroy the off-diagonal long range order, duality arguments predict the formation of a Cooper pair crystal. This effect is thought to be responsible for the static checkerboard patterns observed recently in various underdoped cuprate superconductors by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Breaking of the translational symmetry in such a Cooper pair Wigner crystal may, under certain conditions, lead to the emergence of low lying transverse vibrational modes which could then contribute to thermodynamic and transport properties at low temperatures. We investigate these vibrational modes using a continuum version of the standard vortex-boson duality, calculate the speed of sound in the Cooper pair Wigner crystal and deduce the associated specific heat and thermal conductivity. We then suggest that these modes could be responsible for the mysterious bosonic contribution to the thermal conductivity recently observed in strongly underdoped ultraclean single crystals of YBCO tuned across the superconductor-insulator transition.

arXiv comment14 pages; 3 figures; corrected the sample size value; version 3 to appear in PRB

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Emergence of Cooper pairs, d-wave duality and the phase diagram of cuprate superconductors
• Preparation and detection of d-wave superfluidity in two-dimensional optical superlattices
• Onset of a boson mode at superconducting critical point of underdoped YBa2Cu3Oy
• Vortex-boson duality in four space-time dimensions
• Symmetry of the charge density wave in cuprates
• Charged branes interactions via Kalb-Ramond field
• Casimir Effect at finite temperature for the Kalb-Ramond field
• Boson-Fermion Duality and Metastability in Cuprate Superconductors