Issue |
EPL
Volume 105, Number 3, February 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 31002 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | The Physics of Elementary Particles and Fields | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/105/31002 | |
Published online | 21 February 2014 |
Topologically stable gapped state in a layered superconductor
1 Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto - 35400-000 Ouro Preto Minas Gerais, Brazil
2 Departamento de Física dos Sólidos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Received: 14 October 2013
Accepted: 27 January 2014
We show that a layered superconductor, described by a two-component order parameter, has a gapped state above the ground state, topologically protected from decay, containing flow and counterflow in the absence of an applied magnetic field. This state is made of skyrmions, breaks time reversal symmetry and produces a weak local magnetic field. We estimate the density of carriers that condense into the pseudogap of the cuprate superconductors based on the assumption that the pseudogap is a skyrmion state.
PACS: 12.39.Dc – Skyrmions / 74.20.De – Phenomenological theories (two-fluid, Ginzburg-Landau, etc.) / 74.72.Kf – Pseudogap regime
© EPLA, 2014
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