Coexistence of itinerant ferromagnetism and a non-unitary superconducting state with line nodes: possible application to UGe$_2$

TL;DR

This paper develops a mean-field theory for the coexistence of itinerant ferromagnetism and non-unitary superconductivity with line nodes, motivated by UGe$_2$, predicting measurable properties like specific heat and tunneling spectra.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model describing coexistence of ferromagnetism and non-unitary superconductivity with specific predictions for experimental observables.

Findings

Majority-spin band is gapped with line nodes

Minority-spin band remains gapless at the Fermi level

Predicted specific heat, Knight shift, and tunneling spectra behaviors

Abstract

We construct a mean-field theory for itinerant ferromagnetism coexisting with a non-unitary superconducting state, where only the majority-spin band is gapped and contains line nodes, while the minority-spin band is gapless at the Fermi level. Our study is motivated by recent experimental results indicating that this may be the physical situation realized in the heavy-fermion compound UGe$_2$. We investigate the stability of the mean-field solution of the magnetic and superconducting order parameters. Also, we provide theoretical predictions for experimentally measurable properties of such a non-unitary superconductor: the specific heat capacity, the Knight shift, and the tunneling conductance spectra. Our study should be useful for direct comparison with experimental results and also for further predictions of the physics that may be expected in ferromagnetic superconductors.