Order parameter of the superconductor Sr2RuO4
Strontium ruthenate is an exceptionally clean layered oxide that superconducts below 1.5 K; for two decades it was thought to pair electrons with parallel spins, until a 2019 measurement overturned the main evidence. No proposed pairing state now fits all the data.
Why it matters
It is the cleanest test of whether experiment can determine an unconventional superconductor's order parameter, and the answer constrains theories of multiorbital pairing.
Review
A. P. Mackenzie, T. Scaffidi, C. W. Hicks, Y. Maeno, Even odder after twenty-three years: the superconducting order parameter puzzle of Sr2RuO4, npj Quantum Materials, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0045-4 reference checked
Proof
- Signed record
- 4f61e38da478…
- Public log
- Entry 173, in checkpoint 2,123
- Bitcoin date
- Block 969,698, 2026-10-03