Magnetic superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper provides an accessible introduction to superconductivity, emphasizing thermodynamics and symmetry, and explores the concept of magnetic properties arising from time-reversal symmetry breaking in unconventional superconductors.

Contribution

It offers a didactic overview of superconductivity, clarifies the distinction between conventional and unconventional types, and introduces the concept of magnetic superconductivity through symmetry breaking.

Findings

Time-reversal symmetry can be broken in superconductors, leading to magnetic properties.

Chiral superconductivity is a significant area of current research.

Ginzburg-Landau theory effectively describes magnetic phenomena in superconductors.

Abstract

This paper serves as a primer on superconductivity, inviting students for further investigation. Although the theory of superconductivity is a many-body quantum theory, here we take a more didactic route based on thermodynamics and symmetry. We briefly survey the more than a century-old field and provide a one-sentence definition of a superconductor. Surprisingly, many textbooks lack such a definition, usually introducing superconductors through their properties rather than by definition. We explain the concept of an order parameter, symmetry, and symmetry breaking. Based on this, we clarify the difference between conventional and unconventional superconductors, which is frequently a confusing topic for newcomers. We provide the reader with a taste of a current research topic in the field of unconventional superconductivity and magnetism. For this, we explain the concept of time-reversal symmetry breaking in condensed matter physics, which is usually associated with a form of magnetism. Here, we show that time-reversal symmetry might be broken in superconductors, leading to magnetic properties due to superconductivity itself. For this purpose, we utilize the method of the Ginzburg-Landau theory for phase transitions. We discuss the field of chiral superconductivity and guide the interested reader to further study.