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Journal of Physics Communications

Cluster decomposition principle and two-electron wave function of the Cooper pair in the BCS superconducting state

Katsuhiko Higuchi, Masahiko Higuchi

Published Aug 17, 2021• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present the explicit forms of the maximum eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenfunction for the second-order reduced density matrix (RDM2) of the BCS superconducting state (SS). Using these quantities, we deal with two topics in the present paper. As the first topic, it is shown that the cluster decomposition principle holds in the BCS-SS. This proof gives a theoretical foundation that the abnormal density can be chosen as the order parameter of the SS. As the second topic, it is shown that such an eigenfunction is spin singlet and spatially extends isotopically, and further that the mean distance of two electrons which consists of the above eigenfunction is in a good agreement with Pippard’s coherence length. This means that maximum geminal of the RDM2 of the BCS-SS can be regarded as the Cooper pair itself which are condensed to the same energy level in a number of O N .

DOI
10.1088/2399-6528/ac1e40

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Abstract We present the explicit forms of the maximum eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenfunction for the second-order reduced density matrix (RDM2) of the BCS superconducting state (SS). Using these quantities, we deal with two topics in the present paper. As the first topic, it is shown that the cluster decomposition principle holds in the BCS-SS. This proof gives a theoretical foundation that the abnormal density can be chosen as the order parameter of the SS. As the second topic, it is shown that such an eigenfunction is spin singlet and spatially extends isotopically, and further that the mean distance of two electrons which consists of the above eigenfunction is in a good agreement with Pippard’s coherence length. This means that maximum geminal of the RDM2 of the BCS-SS can be regarded as the Cooper pair itself which are condensed to the same energy level in a number of O N .
We present the explicit forms of the maximum eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenfunction for the second-order reduced density matrix (RDM2) of the BCS superconducting state (SS). Using these quantities, we deal with two topics in the present paper. As the first topic, it is shown that the cluster decomposition principle holds in the BCS-SS. This proof gives a theoretical foundation that the abnormal density can be chosen as the order parameter of the SS. As the second topic, it is shown that such an eigenfunction is spin singlet and spatially extends isotopically, and further that the mean distance of two electrons which consists of the above eigenfunction is in a good agreement with Pippard's coherence length. This means that maximum geminal of the RDM2 of the BCS-SS can be regarded as the Cooper pair itself which are condensed to the same energy level in a number of O(N).
We present the conditions for satisfying the cluster property in the superconducting state. Using these conditions, we show that the cluster property employed when deriving the order parameter of the superconducting state (OPSS) holds true, and that the OPSS is given by S⟨Ψ∣ψ^(x)ψ^(x′)∣Ψ⟩S{}_S\langle Ψ| \hatψ(x)\hatψ(x') | Ψ\rangle_SS​⟨Ψ∣ψ^​(x)ψ^​(x′)∣Ψ⟩S​, where ∣Ψ⟩S|Ψ\rangle_S∣Ψ⟩S​ is the superconducting state, and where ψ^(x)\hatψ(x)ψ^​(x) is the field operator of superconducting electrons. This provides a resolution to the long-standing concern raised by Leggett et al.\ regarding particle-number fluctuation in the superconducting state. In addition, by considering the entanglement between two particles composed of the maximum geminal of the BCS ground state [J.\ Phys. Commun. 5, 095003 (2021)], it is confirmed that the larger the deviation from the conditions for satisfying the cluster property becomes, the greater the magnitude of the entanglement becomes. This shows not only the effectiveness of the conditions for satisfying the cluster property but also the justification of the OPSS that has been commonly used.
We investigate entanglement of two electron spins forming Cooper pairs in an sss-wave superconductor. The two-electron space-spin density matrix is obtained from the BCS ground state using a two-particle Green's function. It is demonstrated that a two spin state is not given by a spin singlet state but by a Werner state. It is found that the entanglement length, within which two spins are entangled, is not of the order of the coherence length but of the order of the Fermi wave length.
Symmetry of the Gap Function in High-TcT_cTc​ Superconductors
One of the most debated issues related to high-TcT_cTc​ superconductivity is the symmetry of the Cooper pair or the gap function. In this report, we present numerical results regarding the gap function in strongly correlated electron systems using t−Jt-Jt−J and Hubbard models in one and two dimensions. To this end, we use exact diagonalization to study the ground states of 8- and 16-site clusters consisting of single or coupled layers. We calculate a reduced two-particle density matrix in momentum space which is a measure of the gap function. We then analyze the eigenvectors of this density matrix, which display the possible Cooper pair symmetries. The eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue indicates a vanishing gap on the Fermi surface (which is in favour of odd-gap pairing) although dx2−y2d_{x^2-y^2}dx2−y2​ symmetry is seen to be a very close contestant in many of the cases.
Abstract From the viewpoint of the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of the fermion system, the maximum geminal of the second-order reduced density matrix of the superconducting state exactly corresponds to the Cooper pair. In this paper the entanglement entropy (EE) for the maximum geminal of the BCS ground state is evaluated. The EE behaves logarithmically with respect to the number of the maximum geminal. Furthermore, the disappearance point of superconductivity is defined on the basis of the fermion BEC. In the superconducting ground state, almost all electrons in the energy width of the gap parameter near the Fermi level are condensed as a maximum geminal. They suddenly change to normal electrons with a finite gap of the EE at the disappearance point like a first-order phase transition.
We show that the diagonal elements of the second-order reduced density matrix (RDM2) can be chosen as basic variables for describing the superconducting state, instead of the off-diagonal elements of the RDM2 that are usually adopted as basic variables in the density functional scheme. The diagonal elements of the RDM2 are called pair-density (PD), which is explicitly related to the fluctuation of the particle number of the system. In this paper, we argue that the fluctuation of the particle number can become an indication of the superconducting state, and that the density functional scheme in which the PD is chosen as a basic variable would be a promising first-principles theory for superconductors.