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arXiv:2601.12905 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Finite-momentum bound pairs of two electrons in an altermagnetic metal

Hui Hu, Zhao Liu, Jia Wang, Xia-Ji Liu

Published Sep 1, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We solve the two-electron problem on a square lattice with d-wave altermagnetism, considering both on-site and nearest-neighbor attractive interactions. The altermagnetic spin-splitting in the single-particle dispersion naturally gives rise to a ground state of two-electron bound pairs with nonzero center-of-mass momentum. The emergence of finite-momentum bound states suggests that altermagnetic spin splitting may favor pairing at nonzero center-of-mass momentum, which could be relevant for proposed Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity in altermagnetic systems. Additionally, when the nearest-neighbor attraction is strong, the resulting finite-momentum bound pairs exhibit a mixture of both spin-singlet and spin-triplet characteristics, suggesting the possibility of unconventional superconductors, where spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairings coexist.

DOI
10.1103/whw7-hdtg

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We solve the two-electron problem on a square lattice with d-wave altermagnetism, considering both on-site and nearest-neighbor attractive interactions. The altermagnetic spin-splitting in the single-particle dispersion naturally gives rise to a ground state of two-electron bound pairs with nonzero center-of-mass momentum. The emergence of finite-momentum bound states suggests that altermagnetic spin splitting may favor pairing at nonzero center-of-mass momentum, which could be relevant for proposed Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity in altermagnetic systems. Additionally, when the nearest-neighbor attraction is strong, the resulting finite-momentum bound pairs exhibit a mixture of both spin-singlet and spin-triplet characteristics, suggesting the possibility of unconventional superconductors, where spin-singlet and spin-triplet pairings coexist.
We systematically investigate the emergence of finite-momentum Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity in a square lattice Hubbard model with finite filling, driven by either dxyd_{xy}dxy​ -wave or dx2−y2d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}dx2−y2​ -wave altermagnetic order in the presence of on-site sss -wave attractive interactions. Our study combines mean-field calculation in the superconducting phase with pairing instability analysis of the normal state, incorporating the next-nearest-neighbor hopping in the single-particle dispersion relation. We demonstrate that the two types of altermagnetism have markedly different impacts on the stabilization of FFLO states. Specifically, dxyd_{xy}dxy​ -wave altermagnetism supports FFLO superconductivity over a broad parameter regime at low fillings, whereas dx2−y2d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}dx2−y2​ -wave altermagnetism only induces FFLO pairing in a narrow range at high fillings. Furthermore, we find that the presence of a Van Hove singularity in the density of states tends to suppress FFLO superconductivity. These findings may provide guidance for experimental exploration of altermagnetism-induced FFLO states in real materials with more complex electronic structures.
We present an analytical study of the ground-state phase diagram for dilute two-dimensional spin-1/2 Fermi gases exhibiting ddd-wave altermagnetic spin splitting under sss-wave pairing. Within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes mean-field framework, four distinct phases are identified: a Bardeen-Schrieffer-Cooper-type superfluid, a normal metallic phase, a nodal superfluid with topological Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces (TBFSs), and Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states with finite center-of-mass momentum. Among these, the FFLO states and TBFSs exemplify two unconventional forms of superconductivity. Considering the simplicity of this model, with only one band, zero net magnetization, and sss-wave paring, the emergence of both unconventional phases underscores the pivotal role of altermagnetic spin splitting in enabling exotic pairing phenomena. This analytical study not only offers a valuable benchmark for future numerical simulations, but also provides a concrete experimental roadmap for realizing FFLO states and TBFSs in altermagnets.
The previously studied Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state is stabilized by a magnetic field via the Zeeman coupling in spin-singlet superconductors. Here we suggest a novel route to achieve nonzero center-of-mass momentum pairing states in superconductors with Fermi surface nesting. We investigate two-dimensional superconductors under a uniform external current, proportional to a finite pair momentum of q(e). We find that an FFLO state with a spontaneous pair momentum of q(s) is stabilized above a certain critical current that depends on the direction of the external current. A finite q(s) arises in order to make the total pair-momentum of q(t)(=q(s) + q(e)) perpendicular to the nesting vector, which is independent of spin states of Cooper pairs. We also discuss experimental signatures of the FFLO state.
We investigate the superconductivity of two-dimensional spin-1/2 Fermi systems with ddd-wave altermagnetism under external magnetic field near zero temperature. At large altermagnetic coupling, without magnetic field, we show that altermagnetism drives a second-order phase transition from the standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) state to an inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. The inclusion of a magnetic field turns the BCS state into a long-sought polarized BCS superconductor with spin-population imbalance. It also shrinks the parameter window of the FFLO state and eventually leads to a nontrivial quantum tricritical Lifshitz point, where two second-order phase transition lines between the polarized BCS, FFLO, and normal states intersect. At small altermagnetic coupling, we find the usual route to the FFLO state driven by magnetic field. The presence of altermagnetic coupling narrows the phase window of the FFLO state and creates another quantum Lifshitz point, where a first-order transition curve meets a second-order transition line. Between the two Lifshitz points, the transition from the polarized BCS state to the normal state is smooth. Our predicted rich phase diagram is relevant to some recently discovered unconventional magnets, including RuO2{\mathrm{RuO}}_{2}RuO2​ that exhibits a relatively high superconducting temperature in the thin film limit under applied strain. Our results of unconventional superfluidity are also testable in ultracold atom laboratories, where a spin-1/2 altermagnetic Fermi gas might be realizable upon loading into two-dimensional Hubbard lattices.
In the BCS theory of superconductivity, one assumes that all Cooper pairs have the same center-of-mass momentum. This is indeed enforced by self-consistency if the pairing interaction is momentum independent. Here, we show that for an attractive nearest-neighbor interaction, this is different. In this case, stable solutions with pairs with momenta q\mathbf{q}q and $\ensuremath{-}\mathbf{q}$ coexist and, for a sufficiently strong interaction, one of these states becomes the ground state of the superconductor. The possibility for a finite-momentum pairing state emerges only for nodal superconductors and is accompanied by a charge order with wave vector 2q2\mathbf{q}2q. For a weak pairing interaction, the ground state is a ddd-wave superconductor.
Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity, Cooper pairing at finite-momentum driven by spin imbalance, remains difficult to study numerically in two dimensions. The fermion sign problem in the spin-imbalanced attractive Hubbard model severely limits quantum Monte Carlo access to the low temperatures where pairing correlations are most pronounced. We show that the Holstein model, in which the effective attraction is retarded by phonon dynamics, strongly suppresses sign fluctuations under spin imbalance, enabling unbiased determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations deep in this regime. With increasing magnetization, zero-momentum pairing evolves into finite-momentum FFLO pairing, evidenced by oscillating real-space pair correlations and a shift of the pairing susceptibility peak to finite Q⃗\vec{Q}Q​. The finite-momentum susceptibility substantially exceeds its zero-momentum value. At high density n∼0.875n \sim 0.875n∼0.875, near magnetization m≈1−nm \approx 1-nm≈1−n where the majority-spin density approaches half filling, FFLO pairing coexists with checkerboard charge-density-wave order at short range, while staggered longitudinal spin correlations emerge as a magnetic halo at larger distances. These spatial textures provide experimentally accessible signatures of finite-momentum pairing and motivate cold-atom realizations of FFLO physics.