arXiv subjects

K. Levin

Publications and source records attributed to K. Levin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A Different Perspective on Superconductivity in Crystalline Graphene: Exploiting Energetics

A central mystery of crystalline graphene is why superconductivity is so widespread yet often confined to strange slivers near boundaries between distinct isospin-ordered metals. In this paper, we apply a ``two-parent'' energetic framework which we show can explain this unusual form of superconductivity \textit{without} specifying the details of the necessarily present pairing attraction. First-order transitions are crucial here: when two normal isospin-ordered states are degenerate in free energy, even a small net superconducting energy gain may stabilize an equilibrium superconductor. We demonstrate how this is possible even though the small energy gain from pairing is reduced by the expense of reconstructing the normal metal, which is needed to achieve superconducting compatibility. The first order degeneracy also gives superconductivity a choice between two normal state parents, favoring the state with the largest net free energy gain.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2026

Electrodynamic Signatures of Bogoliubov Fermi Surfaces in Moiré Graphene

Understanding the superfluid stiffness $D_s$ is a central problem in flat-band superconductivity. It is often interpreted together with spectroscopic probes such as tunneling, since both ultimately reflect the same superconducting quasiparticles. Their relationship is nevertheless complicated in flat bands, where quantum-geometric contributions to $D_s$ must be included. The situation in moiré graphene is particularly complex: tunneling experiments in some cases reveal an evolution between V- and U-shaped spectra together with a quite universal finite zero-bias conductance (ZBC). These two phenomena along with others have been argued to suggest the presence of a Bogoliubov Fermi surface (BFS), often generated by finite-momentum pair-density-wave (PDW) superconductivity. In this paper we calculate the superfluid stiffness in the presence of such a PDW. Virtual interband processes provide the familiar positive geometric contribution that gives phase rigidity to the flat-band condensate, allowing superconductivity to survive even in the presence of a BFS. At the same time, the multiband PDW pair structure enables the gapless BFS quasiparticles to respond to a phase gradient despite the negligible ordinary flat-band velocity. Their resulting counterflow reduces the stiffness even at zero temperature. As an experimentally accessible consequence, we predict a correlated evolution of the residual ZBC and the low-temperature stiffness: enhanced zero-bias spectral weight should accompany reduced phase rigidity. Observation of this correlation would support the presence of a BFS and indicate that the residual zero-energy states are intrinsic.

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arXiv2026

Non-Quantum-Critical Routes to Magnetic Superconductivity

Electronic superconductivity is most commonly understood to be associated with magnetic quantum criticality. This framework is natural when a quantum critical point is present below the peak of the $T_c$ dome, but it is less satisfactory in the many systems where electronic superconductivity appears without a visible quantum critical point (QCP). Why and where does superconductivity emerge in such cases, given that its condensation energy is generally much smaller than the energy scale of the magnetic order itself? Here we develop an energetic perspective of this non-quantum-critical route to electronic superconductivity. When magnetic order becomes incipient but cannot be fully realized, the opening of a pairing gap lowers the free-energy cost of the nearby fluctuating magnetic state. This means that pairing can become strongest where long range order first becomes fragile. As a result, the strongest pairing tendency can sometimes occur at the edge of the superconducting dome closest to the loss of magnetism, even when $T_c$ itself is relatively small there. The relevant organizing principle is therefore not quantum criticality itself, but proximity to unrealized or disappearing magnetic order. Because many unconventional superconductors show no clear QCP, this perspective provides an alternative framework for understanding the phase diagram of a large class of electronic superconductors and may help identify new superconducting materials.

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arXiv2026

Kekulé Superconductivity in Twisted Magic Angle Bilayer Graphene

While it has been one of the most important new physics discoveries in the last decade, the nature of superconductivity in the twisted graphene family remains an unsolved problem. Motivated by recent scanning tunneling experiments that report Kekulé ordering in moiré graphene superconductors, we develop a microscopic theory of this superconductivity for the twisted bilayer system. The pairing we find is an intra-valley, finite-momentum pair-density wave (PDW) that intrinsically carries a Kekulé modulation. This state exhibits four salient features: (i) spontaneous breaking of $C_3$ rotation symmetry, producing nematic order (ii)with triplet pairing; and (iii) a quasiparticle density of states that evolves from a V-shaped profile to a fully gapped, U-shaped spectrum as the attraction increases which is accompanied by (iv) systematic behavior of the temperature dependent zero bias conductance. These features align with key experimental signatures. We find, as well, that with only modest interaction strengths, the state is near to a BEC-like phase, consistent with the observed extremely short coherence lengths. Taken together, these results identify a microscopic intra-valley Kekulé PDW as a compelling candidate for unconventional superconductivity in the twisted graphene family.

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arXiv2025

Tunable Molecular Interactions Near an Atomic Feshbach Resonance: Stability and Collapse of a Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensate

Understanding and controlling interactions of ultracold molecules is a cornerstone of quantum chemistry. While the laboratory creation of degenerate molecular gases comprised of bosonic atoms has unlocked powerful new platforms for quantum simulation, progress is limited by the absence of a robust theoretical framework for characterizing inter-molecular interactions. This is in stark contrast to the situation for Fermi gases. In this Letter, we present such a framework providing universal expressions for these molecular scattering lengths as functions of experimentally measurable quantities. Our discoveries are crucial for understanding molecular condensate formation. Calculations of the compressibility reveal that a sign change in such molecular scattering lengths is directly correlated with the instability of these condensates. These results offer fresh insight with broad applications for atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physics, as well as quantum chemistry.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Anomalous Superfluid Density in Pair-Density-Wave Superconductors

Pair-density-wave (PDW) states are a long-sought-after phase of quantum materials, with the potential to unravel the mysteries of high-$T_c$ cuprates and other strongly correlated superconductors. Yet, surprisingly, a key signature of stable superconductivity, namely the positivity of the superfluid density, $n_s(T)$, has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we address this central issue by calculating $n_s(T)$ for a generic model two-dimensional PDW superconductor. We uncover a surprisingly large region of intrinsic instability, associated with negative $n_s(T)$, revealing that a significant portion of the parameter space thought to be physical cannot support a pure PDW order. In the remaining stable regime, we predict two striking and observable fingerprints: a small longitudinal superfluid response and an unusual temperature dependence for $n_s(T)$. These generally model-independent, as well as experimentally relevant findings suggest that the fragility of the superfluid density poses a significant problem for the formation of stable, finite temperature PDW superconductivity.

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arXiv2025

Quench induced collective excitations: from breathing to acoustic modes

In trapped Bose-Einstein condensates, interaction quenches which are abrupt changes of the interaction strength typically implemented via Feshbach tuning, are a practical and widely used protocol to address far-from-equilibrium collective modes. Using both numerical Gross Pitaevskii and analytical schemes we study these interaction-quench-induced collective modes in a harmonically trapped two-dimensional Bose--Einstein condensate contrasting the behavior found at low and high energies. In the low-lying regime, we characterize realistic circumstances in which there is a breakdown of the expected scale invariance so that the collective excitations follow hydrodynamic theory instead of the predictions given by SO(2,1) conformal symmetry. In the high energy regime, we focus on important trap effects associated with acoustic oscillations which have been of interest experimentally. This comprehensive analysis of the collective excitations in trapped two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates is experimentally accessible. Through their frequencies and damping, this reflects an important built-in spectroscopy of such many-body states.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Universal approach to light driven "superconductivity" via preformed pairs

While there are many different mechanisms which have been proposed to understand the physics behind light induced ``superconductivity", what seems to be common to the class of materials in which this is observed are strong pairing correlations, which are present in the normal state. Here we argue, that the original ideas of Eliashberg are applicable to such a pseudogap phase and that with exposure to radiation the fermions are redistributed to higher energies where they are less deleterious to pairing. What results then is a photo-induced state with dramatically enhanced number of nearly condensed fermion pairs. In this phase, because the a.c. conductivity, $σ(ω) = σ_1(ω) + i σ_2(ω)$, is dominated by the bosonic contribution, it can be computed using conventional (Aslamazov Larkin) fluctuation theory. We, thereby, observe the expected fingerprint of this photoinduced ``superconducting" state which is a $1/ω$ dependence in $σ_2$ with fits to the data of the same quality as found for the so-called photo-enhanced (Drude) conductivity scenario. Here, however, we have a microscopic understanding of the characteristic low energy scale which appears in transport and which is necessarily temperature dependent. This approach also provides insight into recent observations of concomitant diamagnetic fluctuations. Our calculations suggest that the observed light-induced phase in these strongly paired superconductors has only short range phase coherence without long range superconducting order.

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arXiv2025

Universal coherent atom-molecule oscillations in the dynamics of the unitary Bose gas near a narrow Feshbach resonance

Quench experiments on a unitary Bose gas around a broad Feshbach resonance have led to the discovery of universal dynamics. This universality is manifested in the measured atomic momentum distributions where, asymptotically, a quasi-equilibrated metastable state is found in which both the momentum distribution and the time scales are determined by the particle density. In this paper we present counterpart studies but for the case of a very narrow Feshbach resonance of $^{133}$Cs atoms having a width of 8.3 mG. In dramatic contrast to the behavior reported earlier, a rapid quench of an atomic condensate to unitarity is observed to ultimately lead to coherent oscillations involving dynamically produced condensed and non-condensed molecules and atoms. The same characteristic frequency, determined by the Feshbach coupling, is observed in all types of particles. To understand these quench dynamics and how these different particle species are created, we develop a beyond Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov dynamical framework including a new type of cross correlation between atoms and molecules. This leads to a quantitative consistency with the measured frequency. Our results, which can be applied to the general class of bosonic superfluids associated with narrow Feshbach resonances, establish a new paradigm for universal dynamics dominated by quantum many-body interactions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

The Higgs-Amplitude mode in the optical conductivity in the presence of a supercurrent: Gauge-invariant formulation with disorder

Observing the ``Higgs" or amplitude mode in superconductors has been a central challenge in condensed matter physics. Moreover, arriving at a theoretical understanding of this mode and how it is accessible in, say, conductivity experiments presents an additional challenge as here one needs to satisfy gauge invariance in the presence of disorder. In this paper, we characterize the Higgs contribution within a fully gauge-invariant treatment of the linear optical conductivity, $σ(ω)$, for a disordered superconductor carrying a uniform supercurrent. As a consequence of gauge invariance, there are two distinct charge conservation laws underlying the linear electromagnetic response with two associated sets of $f$-sum rules. An interesting finding from the Higgs-related sum rule is that the imaginary part of $σ(ω)$ yields an anisotropic, \textit{negative} $1/ω$ contribution in the THz regime. This is relevant to device applications and appears to be consistent with recent experiments. The work presented here emphasizes how difficult it is to disentangle the neutral amplitude mode contributions from those of the charged quasi-particles and we demonstrate why this is the case.

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arXiv2024

Stability and Dynamics of Atom-Molecule Superfluids Near a Narrow Feshbach Resonance

The recent observations of a stable molecular condensate emerging from a condensate of bosonic atoms and related "super-chemical" dynamics have raised an intriguing set of questions. Here we provide a microscopic understanding of this unexpected stability and dynamics in atom-molecule superfluids; we show one essential element behind these phenomena is an extremely narrow Feshbach resonance in $^{133}$Cs at 19.849G. Comparing theory and experiment we demonstrate how this narrow resonance enables the dynamical creation of a large closed-channel molecular fraction superfluid, appearing in the vicinity of unitarity. Theoretically the observed superchemistry (\textit{i.e.}, Bose enhanced reactions of atoms and molecules), is found to be assisted by the formation of Cooper-like pairs of bosonic atoms that have opposite momenta. Importantly, this narrow resonance opens the possibility to explore the quantum critical point of a molecular Bose superfluid and related phenomena which would not be possible near a more typically broad Feshbach resonance.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

When Superconductivity Crosses Over: From BCS to BEC

New developments in superconductivity, particularly through unexpected and often astonishing forms of superconducting materials, continue to excite the community and stimulate theory. It is now becoming clear that there are two distinct platforms for superconductivity: natural and synthetic materials. The study of these artificial materials has greatly expanded in the last decade or so, with the discoveries of new forms of superfluidity in artificial heterostructures and the exploitation of proximitization. Natural superconductors continue to surprise through the Fe-based pnictides and chalcogenides, and nickelates as well as others. It is the goal of this review to present this two-pronged investigation into superconductors, with a focus on those that we have come to understand belong somewhere between the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regimes. We characterize in detail the nature of this "crossover" superconductivity, which is to be distinguished from crossover superfluidity in atomic Fermi gases. In the process, we address the multiple ways of promoting a system out of the BCS and into the BCS-BEC crossover regime within the context of concrete experimental realizations. These involve natural materials, such as organic conductors, as well as artificial, mostly two-dimensional materials, such as magic-angle twisted bilayer and trilayer graphene, or gate-controlled devices, as well as one-layer and interfacial superconducting films. This work should be viewed as a celebration of BCS theory by showing that even though this theory was initially implemented with the special case of weak correlations in mind, it can in a very natural way be extended to treat the case of these more exotic strongly correlated superconductors.

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arXiv2024

Test for BCS-BEC Crossover in the Cuprate Superconductors

In this paper we address the question of whether high-temperature superconductors have anything in common with BCS-BEC crossover theory. Towards this goal, we present a proposal and related predictions which provide a concrete test for the applicability of this theoretical framework. These predictions characterize the behavior of the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length, $ξ_0^{\text{coh}}$, near the transition temperature $T_{\text{c}}$, and across the entire superconducting $T_{\text{c}}$ dome in the phase diagram. That we are lacking a systematic characterization of $ξ_0^{\text{coh}}$ in the entire class of cuprate superconductors is perhaps surprising, as it is one of the most fundamental properties of any superconductor. This paper is written to motivate further experiments and, thus, address this shortcoming. Here we show how measurements of $ξ_0^{\text{coh}}$ contain direct indications for whether or not the cuprates are associated with BCS-BEC crossover and, if so, where within the crossover spectrum a particular superconductor lies.

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arXiv2023

Simulating Cosmological Evolution by Quantum Quench of an Atomic BEC

In cosmological evolution, it is the homogeneous scalar field (inflaton) that drives the universe to expand isotropically and to generate standard model particles. However, to simulate cosmology, atomic gas research has focused on the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) with continuously applied forces. In this paper we argue a complementary approach needs also to be pursued; we, thus, consider the analogue BEC experiments in a non-driven, closed atomic system. We implement this using a BEC in an optical lattice which, after a quench, freely transitions from an unstable to a stable state. This dynamical evolution displays the counterpart "preheating", "reheating" and "thermalization" phases of cosmology. Importantly, our studies of these analogue processes yield tractable analytic models. Of great utility to the cold atom community, such understanding elucidates the dynamics of non-adiabatic condensate preparation.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Dynamical preparation of an atomic condensate in a Hofstadter band

The creation of a Hamiltonian in the quantum regime which has non-trivial topological features is a central goal of the cold-atom community, enabling widespread exploration of novel phases of quantum matter. A general scheme to synthesize such Hamiltonians is based on dynamical modulation of optical lattices which thereby generate vector potentials. At the same time the modulation can lead to heating and serious difficulties with equilibration. Here we show that these challenges can be overcome by demonstrating how a Hofstadter Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can be dynamically realized, using experimental protocols. From Gross-Pitaevskii simulations our study reveals a complex, multistage evolution; this includes a chaotic intermediate "heating" stage followed by a spontaneous reentrance to the BEC. The observed behavior is reminiscent of evolution in cosmological models.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2022

Heat-bath approach to anomalous thermal transport: effects of inelastic scattering

We present results for the entire set of anomalous charge and heat transport coefficients for metallic systems in the presence of a finite-temperature heat bath. In realistic physical systems this necessitates the inclusion of inelastic dissipation mechanisms; relatively little is known theoretically about their effects on anomalous transport. Here we demonstrate how these dissipative processes are strongly intertwined with Berry-curvature physics. Our calculations are made possible by the introduction of a Caldeira-Leggett reservoir which allows us to avoid the sometimes-problematic device of the pseudogravitational potential. Using our formulas, we focus on the finite-temperature behavior of the important anomalous Wiedemann-Franz ratio. Despite previous expectations, this ratio is found to be non-universal as it can exhibit either an upturn or a downturn as temperature increases away from zero. We emphasize that this derives from a \textit{competition} between Berry curvatures having different signs in different regions of the Brillouin zone. We point to experimental support for these observations and for the behavior of an alternative ratio involving a thermoelectric response which, by contrast, appears to be more universal at low temperatures. Our work paves the way for future theory and experiment, demonstrating how inelastic scattering at non-zero temperature affects the behavior of all anomalous transport coefficients.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Observation of the density dependence of the closed-channel fraction of a $^6$Li superfluid

Atomic Fermi gases provide an ideal platform for studying the pairing and superfluid physics, using a Feshbach resonance between closed channel molecular states and open channel scattering states. Of particular interest is the strongly interacting regime. We show that the closed-channel fraction $Z_{cc}$ provides an effective probe for the important many-body interacting effects, especially through its density dependence, which is absent from two-body theoretical predictions. Here we measure $Z_{cc}$ as a function of interaction strength and the Fermi temperature $T_\text{F}$ in a trapped $^6$Li superfluid throughout the entire BCS--BEC crossover, in quantitative agreement with theory when important thermal contributions outside the superfluid core are taken into account. Away from the deep BEC regime, the fraction $Z_{cc}$ is sensitive to $T_\text{F}$. In particular, our data show $Z_{cc} \propto T_\text{F}^α$ with $α=1/2$ at unitarity, in quantitative agreement with calculations of a two-channel pairing fluctuation theory, and $α$ increases rapidly into the BCS regime, reflecting many-body interaction effects as predicted.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2021

Unified approach to electrical and thermal transport in high-$T_c$ superconductors

In this paper we present a consolidated equation for all low-field transport coefficients, based on a reservoir approach developed for non-interacting quasiparticles. This formalism allows us to treat the two distinct types of charged (fermionic and bosonic) quasiparticles that can be simultaneously present, as for example in superconductors. Indeed, in the underdoped cuprate superconductors these two types of carriers result in two onset temperatures with distinct features in transport: $T^*$, where the fermions first experience an excitation (pseudo)gap, and $T_c$, where bosonic conduction processes are dominant and often divergent. This provides the central goal of this paper, which is to address the challenges in thermoelectric transport that stem from having two characteristic temperatures as well as two types of charge carriers whose contributions can in some instances enhance each other and in others compete. We show how essential features of the cuprates (their bad-metal character and the presence of Fermi arcs) provide an explanation for the classic pseudogap onset signatures at $T^*$ in the longitudinal resistivity, $ρ_{xx}$. Based on the fits to the temperature-dependent $ρ_{xx}$, we present the implications for all of the other thermoelectric transport properties.

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