Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy At Ultra-low Temperatures
Published on: October 9, 2012
Bogoliubov Fermi Surfaces in Superconductors with Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry
D F Agterberg1, P M R Brydon2, C Timm3
1Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA.
Abstract:
It is commonly believed that, in the absence of disorder or an external magnetic field, there are three possible types of superconducting excitation gaps: The gap is nodeless, it has point nodes, or it has line nodes. Here, we show that, for an even-parity nodal superconducting state which spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry, the low-energy excitation spectrum generally does not belong to any of these categories; instead, it has extended Bogoliubov Fermi surfaces. These Fermi surfaces can be visualized as two-dimensional surfaces generated by "inflating" point or line nodes into spheroids or tori, respectively. These inflated nodes are topologically protected from being gapped by a Z_{2} invariant, which we give in terms of a Pfaffian. We also show that superconducting states possessing these Fermi surfaces can be energetically stable. A crucial ingredient in our theory is that more than one band is involved in the pairing; since all candidate materials for even-parity superconductivity with broken time-reversal symmetry are multiband systems, we expect these Z_{2}-protected Fermi surfaces to be ubiquitous.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Electric Field at the Surface of a Conductor
In the 19th century, Michael Faraday conducted the famous ice pail experiment to prove that the charges always reside on the surface of a conductor. The experimental set-up consists of a conducting uncharged container mounted on an insulating stand. The outer surface of the container is...
Equipotential Surfaces and Conductors
Types Of Superconductors
Ferromagnetism
Fermi Level
At absolute zero temperature, electrons fill all energy states up to the Fermi level, leaving upper states empty. As the temperature rises,...
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...

