Spin-Fluctuation-Driven Superconductivity in the Kondo Lattice Model

Abstract

Superconductivity in solids usually arises due to the generation of an attractive effective interaction between fermions close to the Fermi energy by some bosonic fluctuations. In the conventional theory, these are phonons, but in correlated electron systems like the cuprates or heavy fermions, one believes that the relevant bosonic degrees of freedom are the spin fluctuations. In this context, one usually argues that standard s-wave superconductivity cannot be formed as these spin fluctuations in general lead to a repulsive local interaction. Recently, we observed s-wave superconductivity in the Kondo lattice model using the dynamical mean-field approach. We can indeed show that this superconducting (SC) solution is due to local spin fluctuations arising from the Kondo effect. The reason for these fluctuations mediating an effective attractive interaction lies in the special properties of the heavy electron ground state, i.e., the formation of hybridized bands. Using a simple model, we can show that it is indeed an interband coupling that is largely responsible for the observed SC state. Such an observation is possibly rather interesting also concerning the situation in the pnictide superconductors.