Impurity Scattering in f-wave Superconductor UPt_3

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates impurity scattering effects in f-wave superconductors, revealing similarities to d-wave superconductors and isotropic superfluid density despite anisotropic gap functions.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of impurity effects in f-wave superconductors, highlighting their similarities to d-wave systems and isotropic physical properties.

Findings

Quasi-particle density of states resembles that of d-wave superconductors.

Superfluid density and thermal conductivity are isotropic despite anisotropic gap.

Impurity scattering impacts are characterized in f-wave superconductors.

Abstract

We study theoretically the effect of impurity scattering in f-wave (or E_{2u}) superconductors. The quasi-particle density of states of f-wave superconductor is very similar to the one for d-wave superconductor as in hole-doped high T_c cuprates. Also in spite of anisotropy in Delta(k), both the normalized superfluid density and the thermal conductivity is completely isotropic.