Time-reversal symmetry breaking in superconductors through loop supercurrent order

We propose a novel superconducting ground state where microscopic supercurrent loops form spontaneously within a unit cell at the superconducting transition temperature with only uniform, onsite and intra-orbital singlet pairing. As a result of the circulating currents time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken in the superconducting state. Using Ginzburg-Landau theory we will show how these currents emerge in a toy model. We will discuss the crystallographic symmetry requirements more generally to realize such a state and show that they are met by the Re6X (X= Zr, Hf, Ti) family of time-reversal symmetry-breaking, but otherwise seemingly conventional, superconductors. The estimate of an upper bound for the resulting internal magnetic fields is found to be consistent with recent muon-spin relaxation experiments.

Reference: arXiv:1803.02618 (to be published in the New Journal of Physics)