arXiv subjects

Hermann Freire

Publications and source records attributed to Hermann Freire.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Emergent superconductivity upon disordering a topological insulator

We study the emergence of superconductivity in a quantum spin Hall insulator and identify a disorder-driven enhancement of pairing arising from quantum geometry. Using sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the attractive Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang (BHZ) Hubbard model, we obtain a quantum phase transition as a function of interaction strength for different impurity densities. In the clean limit, the system develops bulk superconductivity for Hubbard interaction $\vert U \vert$ above a finite critical strength. Interestingly, strong impurities significantly reduce such $\vert U \vert$ required for the onset of superconductivity. Our calculations indicate that Cooper pairing first nucleates in subgap ring states surrounding the impurities and then evolves into a globally coherent superconducting phase. Our results demonstrate that impurity-generated bound states can promote superconductivity in systems with strong quantum geometry. This mechanism is expected to be relevant in nearly flat-band systems like moir\'e materials where quantum geometry plays a dominant role.

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arXiv2026

Slave-rotor theory of correlated altermagnets on the Lieb lattice

We investigate the metal-insulator transition driven by the onsite repulsive interaction $U$ in an altermagnetic Hubbard model defined on a Lieb lattice. Using the slave-rotor approach at half filling, we find that the system exhibits a cascade of interaction-driven phase transitions. As $U$ increases, the system evolves from a normal metal to an altermagnetic metal, then to an altermagnetic insulator, and eventually to an altermagnetic Mott insulator characterized by the complete suppression of the quasiparticle weight. These phases are supported by the calculation of the electronic spectral function, which features spin-split bands in both the metallic and insulating regimes. However, the spin splitting becomes substantially suppressed in the Mott insulating phase. Our results suggest that the observation of spin splitting in the spectral function of $d$-wave altermagnets with a Lieb-lattice-like structure may be limited to the weak-to-moderate correlation regime.

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arXiv2026

Superconducting diode effect in unconventional $p$-wave magnets

We investigate the emergence of superconducting phases, both with zero and finite Cooper-pair center-of-mass momenta, in recently proposed unconventional $p$-wave magnets. As a result, we find that while these magnetic phases are in principle compatible with a conventional pairing state at zero field, a Fulde-Ferrell phase can generally be promoted as the leading instability under the application of a finite magnetic field. Interestingly, by calculating the efficiency of the superconducting diode effect of this finite-momentum pairing state via a Ginzburg-Landau theory, we uncover that a high efficiency can be obtained in these systems for experimentally relevant spin splittings. Therefore, our prediction reveals that the experimental discovery of these materials represents a promising platform for the construction of superconducting logic circuits that may as a consequence find various technological applications.

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arXiv2025

Exact analysis of the interplay of charge order and unconventional pairings in the 2D Hatsugai-Kohmoto model

We provide here a study of some competing ordering tendencies exhibited by the exactly solvable 2D Hatsugai-Kohmoto (HK) model on a square lattice. To this end, we investigate the interplay between superconductivity, charge-density wave (CDW) and pair-density wave (PDW) orders as a function of interaction, doping parameter, magnetic field, and uniaxial strain. As a result, we confirm the intertwined nature of CDW and PDW fluctuating orders for intermediate-to-strong couplings. We also verify that, while an applied magnetic field favors the formation of a CDW and allows the subsequent emergence of a PDW as a secondary order, strain effects favor unidirectional PDW as a primary order over the subdominant appearance of a stripe-like CDW. These results underscore the value of the HK model as an interesting platform in order to investigate (via an exactly solvable framework) the emergence of charge order and unconventional superconductivity in fermionic systems with strong interactions. Finally, we briefly discuss an orbital generalization of the HK model, which has been recently argued to be relevant to describe the properties of realistic strongly correlated systems.

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arXiv2025

Efficiency of the superconducting diode effect of pair-density-wave states in two-dimensional $d$-wave altermagnets

We systematically study the efficiency of the intrinsic superconducting diode effect of several pair-density-wave states that can emerge in two-dimensional $d$-wave metallic altermagnets. To this end, we investigate several scenarios using an effective minimal microscopic model and Ginzburg-Landau analysis in order to derive the corresponding pairing phase diagrams. In addition, we examine also whether the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an applied external magnetic field are beneficial to this effect in these systems. As a consequence, our results add further support to the fact that altermagnetic materials indeed provide a good platform for the pursuit of finite-momentum superconductivity, which can lead to an optimization of the diode efficiency in some physically interesting situations. The latter phenomenon has been recently proposed to be key in improving the applicability of new energy-efficient quantum electronic devices.

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arXiv2024

Strong pair-density-wave fluctuations in an exactly solvable doped Mott insulator

We investigate the Hatsugai-Kohmoto (HK) model on a square lattice, which describes both a Mott insulator at half-filling and a non-Fermi liquid phase on doping. Through the solution of this exactly solvable model with the inclusion of pairing interactions, we demonstrate the emergence of strong pair-density-wave (PDW) fluctuations associated with center-of-mass momentum $\mathbf{Q}=(\pi,\pi)$ at finite temperatures for low dopings up to a critical doping and intermediate $U$ interaction. Furthermore, we also confirm that a superconducting instability appears in the model within a wide regime of interaction $U$ and doping parameter $x$. In view of the fact that it has been recently put forward that the metal-insulator transition of the HK model belongs to the same universality class as the Mott transition of the paradigmatic Hubbard model [Huang \emph{et al.}, Nat. Phys. \textbf{18}, 511 (2022)], our work may thus shed light on an interesting scenario regarding the emergence of a fluctuating PDW phase on doping a Mott insulator, which has been argued to be relevant for understanding the physics of the cuprate superconductors in the underdoped regime.

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arXiv2024

Unconventional superconductivity in altermagnets with spin-orbit coupling

We investigate some possible symmetries of the superconducting state that emerges in three-dimensional altermagnets in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. We demonstrate within a weak-coupling approach that these altermagnets, which naturally possess an order modulated by a vector form factor $\boldsymbol{g}_{\mathbf{k}}$, favor spin-triplet superconductivity described by gap functions given by $\boldsymbol{d}(\mathbf{k}) = \boldsymbol{u}(\mathbf{k}) \times \boldsymbol{g}_{\mathbf{k}}$, where $\boldsymbol{u}(\mathbf{k}) = - \boldsymbol{u}(-\mathbf{k})$. Consequently, this singles out $f$-wave spin-triplet superconductivity as the most favorable pairing state to appear in the vicinity of $d$-wave altermagnetism. Furthermore, we obtain that the combination of spin-singlet superconducting states with altermagnetism gives rise to Bogoliubov-Fermi surfaces, which are protected by a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant. Using a Ginzburg-Landau analysis, we show that, for a class of spin-orbit coupled altermagnetic models, a superconducting phase is expected to appear at low temperatures as an intertwined $d + if$ state, thus breaking time-reversal symmetry spontaneously.

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arXiv2024

Transport properties in non-Fermi liquid phases of nodal-point semimetals

In this review, we survey the current progress in computing transport properties in semimetals which harbour non-Fermi liquid phases. We first discuss the widely-used Kubo formalism, which can be applied to the effective theory describing the stable non-Fermi liquid phase obtained via a renormalization group procedure and, hence, is applicable for temperatures close to zero (e.g., optical conductivity). For finite-temperature regimes, which apply to the computations of the generalized DC conductivity tensors, we elucidate the memory matrix approach. This approach is based on an effective hydrodynamic description of the system, and is especially suited for tackling transport calculations in strongly-interacting quantum field theories, because it does not rely on the existence of long-lived quasiparticles. As a concrete example, we apply these two approaches to find the response of the so-called Luttinger-Abrikosov-Benelavskii phase of isotropic three-dimensional Luttinger semimetals, which arises under the effects of long-ranged (unscreened) Coulomb interactions, with the chemical potential fine-tuned to cut exactly the nodal point. In particular, we focus on the electric conductivity tensors, thermal and thermoelectric response, Raman response, free energy, entropy density, and shear viscosity.

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arXiv2023

Multipolar spin liquid in an exactly solvable model for $j_\mathrm{eff} = \frac{3}{2}$ moments

We study an exactly solvable model with bond-directional quadrupolar and octupolar interactions between spin-orbital entangled $j_{\mathrm{eff}} = \frac{3}{2}$ moments on the honeycomb lattice. We show that this model features a multipolar spin liquid phase with gapless fermionic excitations. In the presence of perturbations that break time-reversal and rotation symmetries, we find Abelian and non-Abelian topological phases in which the Chern number evaluates to $0$, $\pm 1$, and $\pm 2$. We also investigate quantum phase transitions out of the multipolar spin liquid using a parton mean-field approach and orbital wave theory. In the regime of strong integrability-breaking interactions, the multipolar spin liquid gives way to ferroquadrupolar-vortex and antiferro-octupolar ordered phases that harbor a hidden spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Kitaev spin liquid. Our work unveils mechanisms for unusual multipolar orders and quantum spin liquids in Mott insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling.

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arXiv2023

Strange metallicity in an antiferromagnetic quantum critical model: A sign-problem-free quantum Monte-Carlo study

We compute transport and thermodynamic properties of a two-band spin-fermion model describing itinerant fermions in two dimensions interacting via $Z_2$ antiferromagnetic quantum critical fluctuations by means of a sign-problem-free quantum Monte-Carlo approach. We show that the phase diagram of this model indeed contains a $d$-wave superconducting phase at low enough temperatures. However, a crucial question that arises is whether a non-Fermi-liquid metallic regime exists above $T_c$ exhibiting hallmark strange-metal transport phenomenology. Interestingly, we find that this version of the model describes a non-Fermi-liquid metallic regime that displays an approximately $T$-linear resistivity above $T_c$ for a strong fermion-boson interaction. Using Nernst-Einstein relation, our QMC results also show that this strange metal phase exhibits a crossover from being characterized by a charge compressibility given approximately by $\chi_{c}\sim 1/T$ at high temperatures to being described by a charge diffusivity consistent with the scaling $D_{c}\sim 1/T$ at low temperatures. Therefore, our work adds support to the view that the $Z_2$ antiferromagnetic spin-fermion model at strong coupling can be considered a minimal model that describes both unconventional superconductivity and strange metallicity, which are fundamentally interconnected in many important strongly-correlated quantum materials.

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arXiv2023

Incoherent transport in a model for the strange metal phase: Memory-matrix formalism

We revisit a phenomenological model of fermions coupled to fluctuating bosons that emerges from finite-momentum particle-particle pairs for describing the strange metal phase in the cuprates. The incoherent bosons dominate the transport properties for the resistivity and optical conductivity in the non-Fermi liquid phase. Within the Kubo formalism, the resistivity is approximately linear in temperature with a Drude form for the optical conductivity, such that the Drude lifetime is inversely proportional to the temperature. Additionally, when the bosons emerge from electron pairs with spin-triplet symmetry, the magnetoresistance has a linear magnetic field dependence. Here, we compute the transport properties of such bosons within the memory-matrix approach that successfully captures the hydrodynamic regime. This technique emerges as the appropriate framework for describing the transport coefficients of the strange metal phase. Our analysis confirms the $T$-linear resistivity due to the Umklapp scattering that we obtained for this effective model. Finally, we provide new predictions regarding the variation of the thermal conductivity with temperature and examine the validity of the Wiedemann-Franz law.

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arXiv2022

Superconductivity near a nematoelastic quantum critical point

We study the pairing instability of a two-dimensional metallic system induced by Ising-nematic quantum fluctuations in the presence of an unavoidable relevant coupling of the nematic order parameter to the elastic modes (acoustic phonons) of the lattice. We find that this nematoelastic coupling $\lambda_\mathrm{latt}$ leads to a decrease of both the superconducting (SC) critical temperature $T_c$ and the gap function $\Delta$, regardless of the gap symmetry. Interestingly, we show that $\lambda_\mathrm{latt}$ provides a knob that allows us to investigate the emergence of the SC phase at low temperatures, as an instability from either a non-Fermi liquid or a Fermi liquid normal state. The phase transitions between the SC and these normal states are characterized by different critical exponents, which may also vary for each gap symmetry. Finally, we argue that these results might explain the dependence of $T_c$ in the vicinity of the nematic quantum critical point exhibited by the compound FeSe$_{1 - x}$S$_x$.

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arXiv2022

Raman response and shear viscosity in the non-Fermi liquid phase of Luttinger semimetals

Luttinger semimetals represent materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, harbouring doubly-degenerate quadratic band touchings at the Brillouin zone center. In the presence of Coulomb interactions, such a system exhibits a non-Fermi liquid phase [dubbed as the Luttinger-Abrikosov-Beneslavskii (LAB) phase], at low temperatures and zero doping. However, a clear experimental evidence of this emergent state remains elusive to this date. Hence, we focus on extracting the Raman response as a complementary experimental signature. At frequencies much larger than the temperature, the Raman response exhibits a power-law behavior, which can be verified experimentally. On the other hand, at lower frequencies, the Raman response displays a quasi-elastic peak. We also compute the ratio of the shear viscosity and the entropy density, and the value obtained is a consequence of the hyperscaling violation that emerges in the LAB phase.

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arXiv2021

Thermoelectric and thermal properties of the weakly disordered non-Fermi liquid phase of Luttinger semimetals

We compute the thermoelectric and thermal transport in the weakly disordered non-Fermi liquid phase of the Luttinger semimetals at zero doping, where the decay rate associated with the (strong) Coulomb interactions is much larger than the electron-impurity scattering rate. To this end, we implement the Mori-Zwanzig memory matrix method, that does not rely on the existence of long-lived quasiparticles in the system. We find that the thermal conductivity at zero electric field scales as $\bar{\kappa}\sim T^{-n}$ (with $0\lesssim n\lesssim 1)$ at low temperatures, whereas the thermoelectric coefficient has the temperature dependence given by $\alpha\sim T^{p}$ (with $1/2\lesssim p\lesssim 3/2)$. These unconventional properties turn out to be key signatures of this long sought-after non-Fermi liquid state in the Luttinger semimetals, which is expected to emerge in strongly correlated spin-orbit coupled materials like the pyrochlore iridates. Finally, our results indicate that these materials might be good candidates for achieving high figure of merit for thermoelectric applications.

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arXiv2021

Odd-frequency pair density wave in the Kitaev-Kondo lattice model

We investigate the properties of the Kitaev-Kondo lattice model defined on a bilayer honeycomb lattice by means of the SO(3) Majorana representation for spin-$1/2$ moments. We first consider the pairing of neighboring sites for the parent Kitaev spin liquid (KSL) Hamiltonian to render the Majorana and the spin-$1/2$ Hilbert spaces perfectly equivalent to each other. As a consequence, we demonstrate that this decoupling of the Kitaev interaction in terms of the SO(3) Majorana fermions reproduces exactly the spectrum of the KSL model alone. Then, by considering the effect of a local Kondo coupling $J_K$ in the model and decoupling it in terms of an order parameter that physically must have a finite staggering phase, we obtain that the system undergoes a quantum phase transition from a fractionalized Fermi liquid to a nematic triplet superconducting (SC) phase as $J_K$ is increased. Depending on the model parameters, this SC phase can exhibit either Dirac points, Bogoliubov-Fermi lines, or Bogoliubov-Fermi surfaces as nodal bulk manifolds. The surface states in this latter case are also characterized by topologically protected antichiral edge modes. The SC phase breaks time-reversal symmetry and exhibits a coexistence of a dominant odd-frequency pairing with a small even-frequency component for electronic excitations localized on sites of the same sublattice of the system. Finally, we show that this SC phase is in fact a pair-density-wave state, with Cooper pairs possessing a finite center-of-mass momentum in zero magnetic field.

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arXiv2020

Transport in the non-Fermi liquid phase of isotropic Luttinger semimetals

Luttinger semimetals have quadratic band crossings at the Brillouin zone-center in three spatial dimensions. Coulomb interactions in a model that describes these systems stabilize a non-trivial fixed point associated with a non-Fermi liquid state, also known as the Luttinger-Abrikosov-Beneslavskii phase. We calculate the optical conductivity $\sigma (\omega) $ and the dc conductivity $\sigma_{dc} (T) $ of this phase, by means of the Kubo formula and the Mori-Zwanzig memory matrix method, respectively. Interestingly, we find that $\sigma (\omega) $, as a function of the frequency $\omega$ of an applied ac electric field, is characterized by a small violation of the hyperscaling property in the clean limit, which is in marked contrast to the low-energy effective theories that possess Dirac quasiparticles in the excitation spectrum and obey hyperscaling. Furthermore, the effects of weak short-ranged disorder on the temperature-dependence of $\sigma_{dc} (T)$ give rise to a much stronger power-law suppression at low temperatures compared to the clean limit. Our findings demonstrate that these disordered systems are actually power-law insulators. Our theoretical results agree qualitatively with the data from recent experiments performed on Luttinger semimetal compounds like the pyrochlore iridates [ (Y$_{1-x}$Pr$_x$)$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ ].

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arXiv2020

Strange metal from incoherent bosons

The breakdown of the celebrated Fermi liquid theory in the strange metal phase is the central enigma of correlated quantum matter. Motivated by recent experiments reporting short-lived carriers, along with the ubiquitous observations of modulated excitations in the phase diagram of cuprates, we propose a model for this phase. We introduce bosons emerging from the remnants of a pair density wave as additional current carriers in the strange metal phase. These bosonic excitations are finite momentum Cooper pairs and thus carry twice the electronic charge, and its net spin can either be zero or one arising from the two spin-$1/2$ electrons. We show that such a model can capture the famous linear relationship of resistivity with temperature and manifests the Drude form of ac-conductivity with a Planckian dissipation rate. Furthermore, such bosons are incoherent and hence do not contribute to the Hall conductivity. The bosons emerging from the electron pairs of spin-triplet symmetry also reproduce the recently observed linear in-field magnetoresistance [P. Giraldo-Gallo et al., Science 361, 479 (2018); J. Ayres et al., arXiv: 2012.01208 (2020)].

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arXiv2019

DC resistivity near a nematic quantum critical point: Effects of weak disorder and acoustic phonons

We calculate the resistivity associated with an Ising-nematic quantum critical point in the presence of disorder and acoustic phonons in the lattice model. We use the memory-matrix transport theory, which has a crucial advantage compared to other methods of not relying on the existence of well-defined quasiparticles in the low-energy effective theory. As a result, we obtain that by including an inevitable interaction between the nematic fluctuations and the elastic degrees of freedom of the lattice (parametrized by the nemato-elastic coupling $\kappa_{\text{latt}}$), the resistivity $\rho(T)$ of the system as a function of temperature obeys a universal scaling form described by $\rho(T)\sim T\ln (1/T)$ at high temperatures, reminiscent of the paradigmatic strange metal regime observed in many strongly correlated compounds. For a window of temperatures comparable with $\kappa^{3/2}_{\text{latt}}\varepsilon_F$ (where $\varepsilon_F$ is the Fermi energy of the microscopic model), the system displays another regime in which the resistivity is consistent with a description in terms of $\rho(T)\sim T^{\alpha}$, where the effective exponent roughly satisfies the inequality $1\lesssim\alpha\lesssim 2$. However, in the low-temperature limit (i.e., $T\ll\kappa^{3/2}_{\text{latt}}\varepsilon_F$), the properties of the quantum critical state change in an important way depending on the types of disorder present in the system: It can either recover a conventional Fermi liquid described by $\rho(T)\sim T^2$ or it could exhibit yet another non-Fermi liquid regime characterized by the scaling form $\rho(T)-\rho_0\sim T^2\ln T$. Our results emphasize the key role played by both phonon and disorder effects in the scenario of nematic quantum criticality and might be fundamental for addressing recent transport experiments in some iron-based superconductors.

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