Universal low-temperature fluctuation of unconventional superconductors revealed: 'Smoking gun' leaves proper bosonic superfluidity the last theory standing

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a universal T^3 depletion in superfluid density at low temperatures across diverse superconductors, indicating a new quantum superfluid state and challenging existing theories.

Contribution

It reveals a universal low-temperature fluctuation behavior in unconventional superconductors and proposes a new bosonic superfluidity theory consistent with Galilean invariance.

Findings

Universal T^3 depletion observed in all studied superconductors

Challenges traditional theories of superconductivity

Proposes a new bosonic superfluidity framework

Abstract

Low-temperature thermal fluctuations offer an essential window in characterizing the true nature of a quantum state of matter, a quintessential example being Fermi liquid theory. Here, we examine the leading thermal fluctuation of the superfluid density across numerous families ranging from relatively conventional to highly unconventional superconductors (MgB$_2$, bismuthates, doped buckyballs, heavy fermions, UTe$_2$, doped SrTiO$_3$, Chevrel clusters, intermetallics, organic superconductors, transition metal dichalcogenides, ruthenates, iron-pnictides, cuprates, and kagome metals). Amazingly, in all of them an unprecedented universal $T^3$ depletion materializes in the low-temperature superfluid density, even in the believed-to-be-conventional MgB$_2$. This reveals a new quantum superfluid state of matter and requires a necessary change of paradigm in describing modern superconductors. We demonstrate that such unorthodox yet generic behavior can be described by a strictly Galilean consistent theory of bosonic superfluidity hosting a long-lived 'true condensate'.