Superconductivity from repulsive interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores how purely repulsive electron-electron interactions can lead to superconductivity, reviewing theoretical mechanisms and their application to various high-temperature superconductor families.

Contribution

It demonstrates that lattice models for cuprates, Fe-pnictides, and doped graphene exhibit Kohn-Luttinger physics, providing a unified electronic mechanism for superconductivity.

Findings

Repulsive interactions can induce pairing via Kohn-Luttinger mechanism.

Superconductivity in cuprates, Fe-pnictides, and graphene can be understood through lattice Kohn-Luttinger physics.

Parquet renormalization-group analysis is essential for understanding pairing conditions.

Abstract

The BCS theory of superconductivity named electron-phonon interaction as a glue that overcomes Coulomb repulsion and binds fermions into pairs which then condense and superconduct. We review recent and not so recent works aiming to understand whether a nominally repulsive Coulomb interaction can by itself give rise to a superconductivity. We first discuss a generic scenario of the pairing by electron-electron interaction, put forward by Kohn and Luttinger back in 1965, and then turn to modern studies of the electronic mechanism of superconductivity in the lattice models for the cuprates, the Fe-pnictides, and the doped graphene. We show that the pairing in all three classes of materials can be viewed as lattice version of Kohn-Luttinger physics, despite that the pairing symmetries are different. We discuss under what conditions the pairing occurs and rationalize the need to do parquet renormalization-group analysis. We also discuss the interplay between superconductivity and density-instabilities.