Off-site-repulsion induced Triplet Superconductivity: a possibility of chiral p$_{x+y}$ pairing in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$

TL;DR

This study investigates how off-site Coulomb repulsion influences triplet pairing symmetry in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, revealing that it favors chiral p$_{x+y}$ pairing with nodes consistent with experimental observations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that off-site Coulomb repulsion can induce chiral p$_{x+y}$ pairing in a Hubbard model for Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, highlighting a potential mechanism for triplet superconductivity.

Findings

Off-site Coulomb repulsion enhances p$_{x+y}$ pairing over d-wave.

Chiral p$_{x+y}$+i$p_{x-y}$ gap has nodes matching experimental data.

Off-site interaction may be crucial for triplet pairing in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$.

Abstract

In order to probe the effect of charge fluctuations on triplet pairing, we study the pairing symmetry in the one-band Hubbard model having the off-site Coulomb repulsion ($V$) on top of the on-site repulsion as a model for the $\gamma$ band of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, a strong candidate for triplet pairing superconductor. The result, obtained with the dynamical cluster approximation combined with the quantum Monte-Carlo method, and confirmed from the fluctuation exchange approximation, shows that while $d_{x^2-y^2}$-pairing dominates over $p$ in the absence of $V$, introduction of $V$ makes $p_{x+y}$ and $d_{xy}$ dominant. The gap function for the chiral $p_{x+y}$+i$p_{x-y}$ has nodes that are consistent with the recent measurement of specific heat in rotated magnetic fields in the ruthenate. This suggests that the off-site repulsion may play an essential role in triplet superconductivity in this material.