Particle-vortex symmetric liquid

Michael Mulligan
Phys. Rev. B 95, 045118 – Published 13 January 2017

Abstract

We introduce an effective theory with manifest particle-vortex symmetry for disordered thin films undergoing a magnetic field-tuned superconductor-insulator transition. The theory may enable one to access both the critical properties of the strong-disorder limit, which has recently been confirmed by Breznay et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113, 280 (2016)] to exhibit particle-vortex symmetric electrical response, and the nearby metallic phase discovered earlier by Mason and Kapitulnik [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 5341 (1999)] in less disordered samples. Within the effective theory, the Cooper-pair and field-induced vortex degrees of freedom are simultaneously incorporated into an electrically neutral Dirac fermion minimally coupled to a (emergent) Chern-Simons gauge field. A derivation of the theory follows upon mapping the superconductor-insulator transition to the integer quantum Hall plateau transition and the subsequent use of Son's particle-hole symmetric composite Fermi liquid. Remarkably, particle-vortex symmetric response does not require the introduction of disorder; rather, it results when the Dirac fermions exhibit vanishing Hall effect. The theory predicts approximately equal (diagonal) thermopower and Nernst signal with a deviation parameterized by the measured electrical Hall response at the symmetric point.

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  • Received 15 September 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.045118

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Michael Mulligan

  • Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92511, USA

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 4 — 15 January 2017

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