Weyl nodes in periodic structures of superconductors and spin active materials

Motivated by recent progress in epitaxial growth of proximity structures of s-wave superconductors (S) and spin-active materials (M), we show that the periodic structure of S and M can behave effectively as a superconductor with pairs of point nodes, near which the low energy excitations are Weyl fermions. A simple toy model, where M is described by a Kronig-Penney potential with both spin-orbit coupling and exchange field, is proposed and solved to obtain the phase diagram of the nodal structure, the spin texture of the Weyl fermions, as well as the zero energy surface states in the form of open Fermi lines ("Fermi arcs"). Going beyond the simple model, a lattice model with alternating layers of S and magnetic $Z_2$ topological insulators (M) is solved. The calculated spectrum confirms previous prediction of Weyl nodes based on tunneling Hamiltonian of Dirac electrons. Our results provide further evidence that periodic structures of S and M are well suited for engineering gapless topological superconductors.Comment: Research article, contribution to theme issue "Andreev bound states" ed. Laura H. Greene and James A. Saul

Current-phase relation for Josephson effect through helical metal

Josephson junctions fabricated on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators (TI) show a few unusual properties distinct from conventional Josephson junctions. In these devices, the Josephson coupling and the supercurrent are mediated by helical metal, the two-dimensional surface of the TI. A line junction of this kind is known to support Andreev bound states at zero energy for phase bias \pi, and consequently the so-called fractional ac Josephson effect. Motivated by recent experiments on TI-based Josephson junctions, here we describe a convenient algorithm to compute the bound state spectrum and the current-phase relation for junctions with finite length and width. We present analytical results for the bound state spectrum, and discuss the dependence of the current-phase relation on the length and width of the junction, the chemical potential of the helical metal, and temperature. A thorough understanding of the current-phase relation may help in designing topological superconducting qubits and manipulating Majorana fermions

Nonequilibrium spin-transfer torque in SFNFS junctions

We report theoretical results for the nonequilibrium spin current and spin-transfer torque in voltage-biased SFNFS Josephson structures. The subharmonic gap structures and high voltage asymptotic behaviors of the dc and ac components of the spin current are analyzed and related to the spin-dependent inelastic scattering of quasiparticles at both F layers.Comment: minor changes, published versio

Absence of long-range order in a triangular spin system with dipolar interactions

Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice is perhaps the best known example of frustrated magnets, but it orders at low temperatures. Recent density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations find that next nearest neighbor interaction $J_2$ enhances the frustration and leads to a spin liquid for $J_2/J_1\in (0.08,0.15)$. In addition, DMRG study of a dipolar Heisenberg model with longer range interactions gives evidence for a spin liquid at small dipole titling angle $\theta\in[0,10^\circ)$. In both cases, the putative spin liquid region appears to be small. Here, we show that for the triangular lattice dipolar Heisenberg model, a robust quantum paramagnetic phase exists in a surprisingly wide region, $\theta\in [0,54^\circ)$, for dipoles tilted along the lattice diagonal direction. We obtain the phase diagram of the model by functional renormalization group (RG) which treats all magnetic instabilities on equal footing. The quantum paramagnetic phase is characterized by a smooth continuous flow of vertex functions and spin susceptibility down to the lowest RG scale, in contrast to the apparent breakdown of RG flow in phases with stripe or spiral order. Our finding points to a promising direction to search for quantum spin liquids in ultracold dipolar molecules.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures and the supplementary material

Theory of interacting fermions in shaken square optical lattice

We develop a theory of weakly interacting fermionic atoms in shaken optical lattices based on the orbital mixing in the presence of time-periodic modulations. Specifically, we focus on fermionic atoms in circularly shaken square lattice with near resonance frequencies, i.e., tuned close to the energy separation between $s$-band and the $p$-bands. First, we derive a time-independent four-band effective Hamiltonian in the non-interacting limit. Diagonalization of the effective Hamiltonian yields a quasi-energy spectrum consistent with the full numerical Floquet solution that includes all higher bands. In particular, we find that the hybridized $s$-band develops multiple minima and therefore non-trivial Fermi surfaces at different fillings. We then obtain the effective interactions for atoms in the hybridized $s$-band analytically and show that they acquire momentum dependence on the Fermi surface even though the bare interaction is contact-like. We apply the theory to find the phase diagram of fermions with weak attractive interactions and demonstrate that the pairing symmetry is $s+d$-wave. Our theory is valid for a range of shaking frequencies near resonance, and it can be generalized to other phases of interacting fermions in shaken lattices.Comment: 12 pages with 5 figures. Comments and reference suggestions are welcom

Excitations in correlated superfluids near a continuous transition into a supersolid

We study a superfluid on a lattice close to a transition into a supersolid phase and show that a uniform superflow in the homogeneous superfluid can drive the roton gap to zero. This leads to supersolid order around the vortex core in the superfluid, with the size of the modulated pattern around the core being related to the bulk superfluid density and roton gap. We also study the electronic tunneling density of states for a uniform superconductor near a phase transition into a supersolid phase. Implications are considered for strongly correlated superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, published versio

Frustrated Magnetism of Dipolar Molecules on a Square Optical Lattice: Prediction of a Quantum Paramagnetic Ground State

Motivated by the experimental realization of quantum spin models of polar molecule KRb in optical lattices, we analyze the spin 1/2 dipolar Heisenberg model with competing anisotropic, long-range exchange interactions. We show that, by tilting the orientation of dipoles using an external electric field, the dipolar spin system on square lattice comes close to a maximally frustrated region similar, but not identical, to that of the $J_1$-$J_2$ model. This provides a simple yet powerful route to potentially realize a quantum spin liquid without the need for a triangular or kagome lattice. The ground state phase diagrams obtained from Schwinger-boson and spin-wave theories consistently show a spin disordered region between the N$\acute{\textrm{e}}$el, stripe, and spiral phase. The existence of a finite quantum paramagnetic region is further confirmed by an unbiased variational ansatz based on tensor network states and a tensor renormalization group.Comment: 5+10 pages, 3+8 figure