SuperCoop · Unconventional Superconductivity and Strong Electron Correlations: a Cooperative mechanism

Unconventional Superconductivity and Strong Electron Correlations: a Cooperative mechanism

The understanding of optimal conditions giving rise to high temperature superconductivity is still a crucial challenge of condensed matter theory and the last obstacle for an effective design and exploitation of superconductors. The discovery of iron-based superconductors was among the most significant breakthroughs in condensed-matter research since the discovery of superconductivity. I these unconventional materials superconductivity emerges from a (highly incoherent) “bad” metal, characterized by strong electronic correlations, as witnessed for example by the anomalous behavior of the resistivity. In that respect, to understand the bad metal and properly address the interplay between electronic correlations and superconductivity represents a challenge of crucial relevance in order to define the optimal conditions for superconductivity and contributing to efficiently design future superconductors. In the context of IBS, the role of electronic correlations in the bad metal phase has been widely investigated . Still the ultimate question, “Do correlations cooperate to the enhancement of the superconducting critical temperature?”, waits for an answer. With SuperCoop project we are moving a step forward along this direction. SuperCoop introduces and develops a scenario in which the key ingredient for unconventional superconductivity comes from a novel cooperative interplay between electronic correlations and magnetic interactions. Within SuperCoop we are working to develop efficient methods to describe the incoherent metallic phase of iron-based materials from which superconductivity emerges and to analyze the role of correlations effects on the pairing mediated by magnetic degrees of freedom. The project articulated through three specific objectives: preliminary analysis of the interplay between correlations and superconductivity using a toy model; development of an efficient numerical approach to describe the incoherent metal phase of iron-based superconductors; self-consistent analysis of correlations effects for realistic five-orbital models.

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