Revisiting vestigial order in nematic superconductors: gauge-field mechanisms and model constraints
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866910024099430400 |
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| author | Maccari, Ilaria Babaev, Egor Carlström, Johan |
| author_facet | Maccari, Ilaria Babaev, Egor Carlström, Johan |
| contents | An electronic nematic order that originates from superconducting fluctuation but persists above the superconducting transition temperature is often referred to as a vestigial nematic phase. Such a vestigial order belongs to the broader class of composite orders discussed in earlier literature, characterized by ordering in gauge-invariant combinations of superconducting order parameters while the individual superconducting order parameters remain disordered. These states include metallic superfluids, paired phases, and composite (charge-4e) superconductors. Whether and under what conditions such a vestigial phase can emerge in realistic models of nematic superconductors remains an open question. Recent analytical work [P. T. How and S. K. Yip, Phys. Rev. B 107, 104514 (2023)] concluded that vestigial nematic phases--and related mechanisms--do not appear in the widely studied models proposed for, e.g., Bi$_2$Se$_3$-based candidates. To shed light on this question, we perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a three-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model of a nematic superconductor. Consistent with the findings of How and Yip, our numerical results confirm that commonly considered models do not exhibit vestigial nematic phases or nematic-fluctuation-induced charge-4e superconductivity. Extending the analysis to include coupling to a gauge field, we show that vestigial nematic order can, under restrictive conditions, be stabilized through an alternative mechanism: intercomponent coupling mediated by the gauge field or the effects of strong correlations. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_11630 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Revisiting vestigial order in nematic superconductors: gauge-field mechanisms and model constraints Maccari, Ilaria Babaev, Egor Carlström, Johan Superconductivity Statistical Mechanics Strongly Correlated Electrons An electronic nematic order that originates from superconducting fluctuation but persists above the superconducting transition temperature is often referred to as a vestigial nematic phase. Such a vestigial order belongs to the broader class of composite orders discussed in earlier literature, characterized by ordering in gauge-invariant combinations of superconducting order parameters while the individual superconducting order parameters remain disordered. These states include metallic superfluids, paired phases, and composite (charge-4e) superconductors. Whether and under what conditions such a vestigial phase can emerge in realistic models of nematic superconductors remains an open question. Recent analytical work [P. T. How and S. K. Yip, Phys. Rev. B 107, 104514 (2023)] concluded that vestigial nematic phases--and related mechanisms--do not appear in the widely studied models proposed for, e.g., Bi$_2$Se$_3$-based candidates. To shed light on this question, we perform large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a three-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model of a nematic superconductor. Consistent with the findings of How and Yip, our numerical results confirm that commonly considered models do not exhibit vestigial nematic phases or nematic-fluctuation-induced charge-4e superconductivity. Extending the analysis to include coupling to a gauge field, we show that vestigial nematic order can, under restrictive conditions, be stabilized through an alternative mechanism: intercomponent coupling mediated by the gauge field or the effects of strong correlations. |
| title | Revisiting vestigial order in nematic superconductors: gauge-field mechanisms and model constraints |
| topic | Superconductivity Statistical Mechanics Strongly Correlated Electrons |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11630 |