Superconductivity Driven by the Interband Coulomb Interaction and Implications for the Superconducting Mechanism of MgB2

Superconducting mechanism mediated by interband exchange Coulomb repulsion is examined in an extended two-band Hubbard models with a wide band crossing the Fermi level and coexisting with a narrower band located at moderately lower energy. We apply newly developed path-integral renormalization group method to reliably calculate pairing correlations. The correlation shows marked enhancement at moderate amplitudes of the exchange Coulomb repulsion taken smaller than the on-site repulsion for the narrower band. The pairing symmetry is s-wave while it has unconventional phases with the opposite sign between the order parameters on the two bands, in agreement with the mean-field prediction. Since the band structure of recently discovered superconductor MgB$_2$ shares basic similarities with our model, we propose that the present results provide a relevant clue for the understanding of the superconducting mechanism in MgB$_2$ as well as in this class of multi-band materials with good metallic conduction in the normal state.Comment: 4pages, 2figure

Improvement of solar cycle prediction: Plateau of solar axial dipole moment

Aims. We report the small temporal variation of the axial dipole moment near the solar minimum and its application to the solar cycle prediction by the surface flux transport (SFT) model. Methods. We measure the axial dipole moment using the photospheric synoptic magnetogram observed by the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO), the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), and the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). We also use the surface flux transport model for the interpretation and prediction of the observed axial dipole moment. Results. We find that the observed axial dipole moment becomes approximately constant during the period of several years before each cycle minimum, which we call the axial dipole moment plateau. The cross-equatorial magnetic flux transport is found to be small during the period, although the significant number of sunspots are still emerging. The results indicates that the newly emerged magnetic flux does not contributes to the build up of the axial dipole moment near the end of each cycle. This is confirmed by showing that the time variation of the observed axial dipole moment agrees well with that predicted by the SFT model without introducing new emergence of magnetic flux. These results allows us to predict the axial dipole moment in Cycle 24/25 minimum using the SFT model without introducing new flux emergence. The predicted axial dipole moment of Cycle 24/25 minimum is 60--80 percent of Cycle 23/24 minimum, which suggests the amplitude of Cycle 25 even weaker than the current Cycle 24. Conclusions. The plateau of the solar axial dipole moment is an important feature for the longer prediction of the solar cycle based on the SFT model.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Lette

Superconductivity from Flat Dispersion Designed in Doped Mott Insulators

Routes to enhance superconducting instability are explored for doped Mott insulators. With the help of insights for criticalities of metal-insulator transitions, geometrical design of lattice structure is proposed to control the instability. A guideline is to explicitly make flat band dispersions near the Fermi level without suppressing two-particle channels. In a one-dimensional model, numerical studies show that our prescription with finite-ranged hoppings realizes large enhancement of spin-gap and pairing dominant regions. We also propose several multi-band systems, where the pairing is driven by intersite Coulomb repulsion.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Spin-gap phase in nearly-half-filled one-dimensional conductors coupled with phonons

Asymptotic properties of nearly-half-filled one-dimensional conductors coupled with phonons are studied through a renormalization group method. Due to spin-charge coupling via electron-phonon interaction, the spin correlation varies with filling as well as the charge correlation. Depending on the relation between cut-off energy scales of the Umklapp process and of the electron-phonon interaction, various phases appear. We found a metallic phase with a spin gap and a dominant charge- density-wave correlation near half filling between a gapless density-wave phase (like in the doped repulsive Hubbard model) and a superconductor phase with a spin gap. The spin gap is produced by phonon-assisted backward scatterings which are interfered with the Umklapp process constructively or destructively depending on the character of electron-phonon coupling.Comment: 14 pages, revtex, replaced 5 ps figures, published in PR

Tricritical Behavior in Charge-Order System

Tricritical point in charge-order systems and its criticality are studied for a microscopic model by using the mean-field approximation and exchange Monte Carlo method in the classical limit as well as by using the Hartree-Fock approximation for the quantum model. We study the extended Hubbard model and show that the tricritical point emerges as an endpoint of the first-order transition line between the disordered phase and the charge-ordered phase at finite temperatures. Strong divergences of several fluctuations at zero wavenumber are found and analyzed around the tricritical point. Especially, the charge susceptibility chi_c and the susceptibility of the next-nearest-neighbor correlation chi_R are shown to diverge and their critical exponents are derived to be the same as the criticality of the susceptibility of the double occupancy chi_D0. The singularity of conductivity at the tricritical point is clarified. We show that the singularity of the conductivity sigma is governed by that of the carrier density and is given as |sigma-sigma_c|=|g-g_c|^{p_t}Alog{|g-g_{c}|}+B), where g is the effective interaction of the Hubbard model, sigma_c g_c represents the critical conductivity(interaction) and A and B are constants, respectively. Here, in the canonical ensemble, we obtain p_t=2beta_t=1/2 at the tricritical point. We also show that p_t changes into p_{t}'=2beta=1 at the tricritical point in the grand-canonical ensemble when the tricritical point in the canonical ensemble is involved within the phase separation region. The results are compared with available experimental results of organic conductor (DI-DCNQI)2Ag.Comment: 20 pages, 32 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.75(2006)No.