Superconductivity and Superfluidity as Universal Emergent Phenomena

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unifying framework for superconductivity and superfluidity across diverse physical systems based on shared symmetry properties, offering new insights into their universal emergence despite microscopic differences.

Contribution

It introduces a symmetry-based unification approach that encompasses various fermionic systems exhibiting SC and SF, challenging traditional microscopic distinctions.

Findings

Shared symmetry properties unify diverse SC/SF phenomena

Reinterprets high-temperature superconductivity as part of a continuum

Suggests microscopic differences are absorbed into parameters

Abstract

Superconductivity (SC) or superfluidity (SF) is observed across a remarkably broad range of fermionic systems: in BCS, cuprate, iron-based, organic, and heavy-fermion superconductors, and superfluid helium-3 in condensed matter; in a variety of SC/SF phenomena in low-energy nuclear physics; in ultracold, trapped atomic gases; and in various exotic possibilities in neutron stars. The range of physical conditions and differences in microscopic physics defy all attempts to unify this behavior in any conventional picture. Here we propose a unification through the shared symmetry properties of the emergent condensed states, with microscopic differences absorbed into parameters. This, in turn, forces a rethinking of specific occurrences of SC/SF such as cuprate high-temperature superconductivity, which becomes far less mysterious when seen as part of a continuum of behavior shared by a variety of other systems.