Quantum corrections to the phase diagram of heavy-fermion superconductors

TL;DR

This paper develops a Ginzburg-Landau model incorporating quantum corrections to study the interplay of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in heavy fermion systems, revealing how quantum effects influence phase transitions and the phase diagram.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum-corrected Ginzburg-Landau framework to analyze the mutual effects of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in heavy fermion materials.

Findings

Proximity to antiferromagnetic instability extends superconductivity region.

Superconducting quantum fluctuations induce first order transition in antiferromagnetism.

Both phases can collapse at a quantum bicritical point.

Abstract

The competition between magnetism and Kondo effect is the main effect determining the phase diagram of heavy fermion systems. It gives rise to a quantum critical point which governs the low temperature properties of these materials. However, experimental results made it clear that a fundamental ingredient is missing in this description, namely superconductivity. In this paper we make a step forward in the direction of incorporating superconductivity and study the mutual effects of this phase and antiferromagnetism in the phase diagram of heavy fermion metals. Our approach is based on a Ginzburg-Landau theory describing superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in a metal with quantum corrections taken into account through an effective potential. The proximity of an antiferromagnetic instability extends the region of superconductivity in the phase diagram and drives this transition into a first order one. On the other hand superconducting quantum fluctuations near a metallic antiferromagnetic quantum critical point gives rise to a first order transition from a low moment to a high moment state in the antiferromagnet. Antiferromagnetism and superconductivity may both collapse at a quantum bicritical point whose properties we calculate.