Absence of Spontaneous Magnetic Fields Due to Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in Bulk Superconducting UTe2

TL;DR

This study uses zero-field muon spin relaxation to investigate the magnetic properties of UTe2 crystals, finding no evidence of spontaneous magnetic fields and suggesting a single-component superconducting order parameter.

Contribution

It provides new experimental evidence that UTe2 does not exhibit spontaneous magnetic fields, challenging previous findings and indicating a single-component superconducting state.

Findings

No evidence of magnetic clusters or electronic moments in UTe2 crystals

Spontaneous magnetic fields are absent in bulk UTe2

Supports the hypothesis of a single-component superconducting order parameter

Abstract

We have investigated the low-temperature local magnetic properties in the bulk of molten salt-flux (MSF) grown single crystals of the candidate odd-parity superconductor UTe2 by zero-field muon spin relaxation (muSR). In contrast to previous muSR studies of UTe2 single crystals grown by a chemical vapour transport (CVT) method, we find no evidence of magnetic clusters or electronic moments fluctuating slow enough to cause a discernible relaxation of the zero-field muSR asymmetry spectrum. Consequently, our measurements on MSF-grown single crystals rule out the generation of spontaneous magnetic fields in the bulk that would occur near impurities or lattice defects if the superconducting state of UTe2 breaks time-reversal symmetry. This result suggests UTe2 is characterized by a single-component superconducting order parameter.