SO(5) Theory of Antiferromagnetism and Superconductivity

Excitations of the antiferromagnetic state that resemble antiferromagnetic hedgehogs at large distances but are predominantly superconducting inside a core region are discussed within the context of Zhang's SO(5)-symmetry-based approach to the physics of high-temperature superconducting materials. Nonsingular, in contrast with their hedgehog cousins in pure antiferromagnetism, these texture excitations are what hedgehogs become when the antiferromagnetic order parameter is pe...

We investigate the competition between antiferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity in quasi one-dimensional electron systems. We show that the two order parameters can be unified using a SO(4) symmetry and demonstrate the existence of such symmetry in one dimensional Luttinger liquids of interacting electrons. We argue that approximate SO(4) symmetry remains valid even when interchain hopping is strong enough to turn the system into a strongly anisotropic Fermi liquid. F...

We propose a critical spin liquid ground state for S=1/2 antiferromagnets on the square lattice. In a renormalization group analysis of the `staggered flux' algebraic spin liquid, we examine perturbations, present in the antiferromagnet, which break its global SU(4) symmetry to SO(5). At physical parameter values, we find an instability towards a fixed point with SO(5) symmetry. We discuss the possibility that this fixed point describes a transition between the Neel and valen...

By numerically solving models with competing superconducting and antiferromagnetic orders, we study the magnetic field dependence of the antiferromagnetic moment in both the weak and strong field regimes. Through a omparison with the neutron scattering results of Kang et al and Matsuura et al.on $Nd_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_4$, we conclude that this system is close to a SO(5) symmetric critical point. We also make a quantitative prediction on increasing the upper critical field $B_...

We show that a superconducting vortex in underdoped high T_c superconductors could have an antiferromagnetic core. This type of vortex configuration arises as a topological solution in the recently constructed SO(5) nonlinear sigma model and in Ginzburg-Landau theory with competing antiferromagnetic and superconducting order parameters. Experimental detection of this type of vortex by \mu SR and neutron scattering is proposed.

Assisted by general symmetry arguments and a many-body invariant, we introduce a phase of matter that constitutes a topological SO(5) superfluid. Key to this finding is the realization of an exactly solvable model that displays some similarities with a minimal model of superfluid $^3$He. We study its quantum phase diagram and correlations, and find exotic superfluid as well as metallic phases in the repulsive sector. At the critical point separating trivial and nontrivial sup...

Following our recent conjecture to model the phenomenona of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity by quantum symmetry groups, we discuss in the present note the choice of the classical symmetry group underlying the quantum group. Keeping in mind the degrees of freedom arising from spin, charge, and lattice we choose the classical group as SO(7). This choice is also motivated to accomodate the several competing phases which are or may be present in these and related mater...

We review application of the SU(4) model of strongly-correlated electrons to cuprate and iron-based superconductors. A minimal self-consistent generalization of BCS theory to incorporate antiferromagnetism on an equal footing with pairing and strong Coulomb repulsion is found to account systematically for the major features of high-temperature superconductivity, with microscopic details of the parent compounds entering only parametrically. This provides a systematic procedure...

The importance of introducing the SO(5) singlet into the new novel model of non-Fermi liquid proposed by LeClair and collaborators is pointed out. This SO(5) singlet order parameter leads to a phase transition between the normal metal and the pseudogap region in the phase diagram for the anti-ferromagnetic (AF) phase and the (d-wave) superconducting (SC) phase. A non-zero value for this order can increase substantially the critical temperature of the SC transition.

We consider the problem of superconducting Ginzburg-Landau (G-L) vortices with antiferromagnetic cores which arise in Zhang's SO(5) model of antiferromagnetism (AF) and high temperature superconductivity (SC). This problem was previously considered by Arovas et al. who constructed approximate "variational" solutions, in the large kappa limit, to estimate the domain of stability of such vortices in the temperature-chemical potential phase diagram. By solving the G-L equations ...