We propose a modified BCS wavefunction as the ground state of a correlated superconductor with the correlation specified between
k and
−k electrons in the reciprocal space. Owing to this correlation, low-energy excitations are not conventional BCS Bogoliubov quasiparticles. They display at least four poles in the Green's function and their particle-hole weights in the tunneling and photon-emission spectrum become asymmetric. The superfluid density or superfluid stiffness also deviates from the BCS predictions with finite paramagnetic terms inside the total diamagnetic response. Moreover, a
d-wave correlated pairing state becomes robust against weak disorders. Hence, this state can explain many mysterious features observed in unconventional superconductors like cuprates.
A d-wave superconducting ground state for a doped Mott insulator is obtained. It is distinguished from a Gutzwiller-projected Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superconductor by an explicit separation of Cooper pairing and resonating valence bond (RVB) pairing. Such a state satisfies the precise sign structure of the t–J model, just as a BCS state satisfies the Fermi–Dirac statistics. This new class of wavefunctions can be intrinsically characterized and effectively manipulated by electron fractionalization with neutral spinons and 'backflow' spinons forming a two-component RVB structure. While the former spinon is bosonic, originating from the superexchange correlation, the latter spinon is found to be fermionic, accompanying the hopping of bosonic holons. The low-lying emergent gauge fields associated with such a specific fractionalization are of mutual Chern–Simons type. Corresponding to this superconducting ground state, three types of elementary excitations are identified. Among them a Bogoliubov nodal quasiparticle is conventional, while the other two are neutral excitations of non-BCS type that play crucial roles in higher-energy/temperature regimes. Their unique experimental implications for the cuprates are briefly discussed.
Superconductivity is usually described in the framework of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) wavefunction, which even includes the resonating-valence-bond (RVB) wavefunction proposed for the high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprate. A natural question is
if any fundamental physics could be possibly missed by applying such a scheme to strongly correlated systems. Here we study the pairing wavefunction of two holes injected into a Mott insulator/antiferromagnet in a two-leg ladder using variational Monte Carlo approach. By comparing with density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculation, we show that a conventional BCS or RVB pairing of the doped holes makes qualitatively wrong predictions and is incompatible with the fundamental pairing force in the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model, which is kinetic-energy driven by nature. By contrast, a non-BCS-like wavefunction incorporating such novel effect will result in a substantially enhanced pairing strength and improved ground state energy as compared to the DMRG results. We argue that the non-BCS form of such a new ground state wavefunction is essential to describe a doped Mott antiferromagnet at finite doping.