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Identifying the effects of surface-bulk coupling is a key challenge in exploiting the topological nature of the surface states in many available three-dimensional topological "metals." Here we combine an effective-model calculation and an ab initio slab calculation to study the effects of the lowest order surface-bulk interaction: hybridization. In the effective-model study, we discretize an established low-energy effective four-band model and introduce hybridization between surface bands and bulk bands in the spirit of the Fano model. We find that hybridization enhances the energy gap between bulk and Dirac surface states and preserves the latter's spin texture qualitatively, albeit with a reduced spin-polarization magnitude. Our ab initio study finds the energy gap between the bulk and the surface states to grow upon an increase in the slab thickness, very much in qualitative agreement with the effective-model study. Comparing the results of our two approaches, we deduce that the experimentally observed low magnitude of the spin polarization can be attributed to a hybridization-type surface-bulk interaction. We discuss evidence for such hybridization in existing ARPES data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent muon spin-rotation (μSR) measurements on SrPtAs revealed time-reversal-symmetry breaking with the onset of superconductivity [Biswas et al., Phys. Rev. B 87, 180503(R) (2013)], suggesting an unconventional superconducting state. We investigate this possibility via the functional renormalization group and find a chiral (d + id)-wave order parameter favored by the multiband fermiology and hexagonal symmetry of SrPtAs. This (d + id)-wave state exhibits significant gap anisotropies as well as gap differences on the different bands, but only has point nodes on one of the bands at the Brillouin zone corners. We study the topological characteristics of this superconducting phase, which features Majorana-Weyl nodes in the bulk, protected surface states, and an associated thermal Hall response. The lack of extended nodes and the spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry of the (d + id)-wave state are in agreement with the μSR experiments. Our theoretical findings, together with the experimental evidence, thus suggest that SrPtAs is an example of chiral d-wave pairing and a Weyl superconductor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss possible pairing symmetries in the hexagonal pnictide superconductor SrPtAs. The local lack of inversion symmetry of the two distinct conducting layers in the unit cell results in a special spin-orbit coupling with a staggered structure. We classify the pairing symmetry by the global crystal point group D3d, and suggest some candidates for the stable state using a tight-binding model with an in-plane, density-density type pairing interaction. We may have some unconventional states such as s + f wave and a mixture of chiral d wave and chiral p wave. The spin-orbit coupling is larger than the interlayer hopping, and the mixing between spin-singlet and spin-triplet states can be seen in spite of the fact that the system has a global inversion center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetry of the crystal lattice can be a determining factor for the structure of Cooper pairs in unconventional superconductors. In this study we extend the discussion of superconductivity in noncentrosymmetric materials to the case when inversion symmetry is missing locally, but is present on a global level. Concretely, we investigate the staggered noncentrosymmetricity within a regular sublattice structure, in some analogy to the discussion of superconductivity in antiferromagnetic systems. Three crystal structures are analyzed in detail as illustrative examples for the extended classification of Cooper-pairing channels. One of the cases may be relevant for the class of iron-pnictide superconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by recent experiments on high-Tc cuprate superconductors pointing toward intra-unit-cell (IUC) order in the pseudogap phase, we investigate three distinct intra-unit-cell-ordering possibilities: nematic, nematic-spin- nematic, and current-loop order. The first two are Fermi-surface instabilities involving a spontaneous charge and magnetization imbalance between the two oxygen sites in the unit cell, respectively, while the third describes circulating currents within the unit cell. We analyze the three-band Emery model of a single CuO2 layer including various on-site and nearest-neighbor interactions within a self-consistent mean-field approach. We show how these on-site and further-neighbor repulsions suppress or enhance particular IUC orders. In particular, we show that the attractive interactions necessary for nematic and nematic-spin-nematic orders in one-band models have their natural microscopic origin in the O-O on-site and nearest-neighbor repulsions in the three-band model. Finally, we find that while the nematic and nematic-spin-nematic orders cannot coexist in this framework, the loop-current order can coexist with nematic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much interest in the superconducting proximity effect in three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs) has been driven by the potential to induce Majorana bound states at the interface. Most candidate materials for 3D TI, however, are bulk metals, with bulk states at the Fermi level coexisting with well-defined surface states exhibiting spin-momentum locking. In such topological metals, the proximity effect can differ qualitatively from that in TIs. By studying a model topological metal-superconductor (TM-SC) heterostructure within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism, we show that the pair amplitude reaches the naked surface, unlike in a topological insulator-superconductor (TI-SC) heterostructure where it is confined to the interface. Furthermore, we predict vortex-bound-state spectra to contain a Majorana zero mode localized at the naked surface, separated from the bulk vortex-bound-state spectra by a finite energy gap in such a TM-SC heterostructure. These nakedsurface- bound modes are amenable to experimental observation and manipulation, presenting advantages of TM-SC over TI-SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]