Particle-vortex symmetric liquid

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective theory with explicit particle-vortex symmetry for disordered thin films near the superconductor-insulator transition, capturing critical behavior and metallic phases without relying on disorder.

Contribution

It introduces a novel particle-vortex symmetric effective theory using Dirac fermions and Chern-Simons fields, linking superconductor-insulator transition to quantum Hall physics.

Findings

Particle-vortex symmetric response arises without disorder.

The theory predicts equal thermopower and Nernst signals at symmetry.

It connects superconductor-insulator transition to quantum Hall criticality.

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. [PNAS 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 an (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.