Superconductivity of non-Fermi liquids described by Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models

TL;DR

This paper explores superconductivity in Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models with all-to-all interactions, revealing how non-Fermi liquid normal states influence transition temperatures, spectral functions, and phase transition nature.

Contribution

It provides a large-$M$ analysis of the normal state to superconductor transition in SYK-like models, highlighting differences between Fermi-liquid and non-Fermi-liquid behaviors.

Findings

Enhanced $T_c$ in non-Fermi liquids for weak attraction

First-order transition in strong non-Fermi liquids

Distinct spectral features without Hebel-Slichter peak

Abstract

We investigate models of electrons in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev class with random and all-to-all electron hopping, electron spin exchange, and Cooper-pair hopping. An attractive on-site interaction between electrons leads to superconductivity at low temperatures. Depending on the relative strengths of the hopping and spin exchange, the normal state at the critical temperature is either a Fermi-liquid or a non-Fermi liquid. We present a large-$M$ (where spin symmetry is enlarged to SU$(M)$) study of the normal state to superconductor phase transition. We describe the transition temperature, the superconducting order parameter, and the electron spectral functions. We contrast between Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid normal states: we find that for weaker attractive on-site interaction there is a relative enhancement of $T_c$ when the normal state is a non-Fermi liquid, and correspondingly a strong deviation from BCS limit. Also, the phase transition in this case becomes a first-order transition for strong non-Fermi liquids. On the other hand, for stronger on-site interaction, there is no appreciable difference in $T_c$ between whether the superconductivity emerges from a Fermi liquid or a non-Fermi liquid. Notable features of superconductivity emerging from a non-Fermi liquid are that the superconducting electron spectral function is different from the Fermi-liquid case, with additional peaks at higher energies, and there is no Hebel-Slichter peak in the NMR relaxation rate in the non-Fermi liquid case.