Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Recent tunneling measurements on $β$-PdBi$_2$ reported a magnetic field induced phase transition from a fully gapped to a nodal superconducting state. We develop a microscopic theory of superconductivity in this multi-band material, taking into account spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman splitting. We show that there are two attractive pairing channels in this system: an s-wave and a p-wave. At zero magnetic field, s-wave superconductivity wins. At a finite field, this channel becomes less favorable because Fermi surfaces split, and the gap symmetry changes to p-wave. We show that at a higher field, the excitation spectrum of a p-wave multi-band superconductor becomes gapless, with nodal points located in between the split Fermi surfaces. We argue that this behavior accounts for the experimentally observed field-induced nodal superconductivity in $β$-PdBi$_2$.
DOI: 10.1103/jqgx-dccx
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Elasto-superconductivity: a pathway to devising new unconventional superconductors, G3273131954, Interplay Between non-Fermi Liquid, Superconductivity, and Pseudogap Behavior in Quantum-Critical Metals, G4269166933, Designing and exploring new quantum materials based on Fermi surface topological transitions
OpenAlex ID: W7165113801