Maximum entropy analytic continuation for spectral functions with nonpositive spectral weight

Abstract

Information about the pairing mechanism for superconductivity is contained in the spectral weight for the anomalous (Gorkov) Green function. In the most general case, this spectral weight can change sign on the positive real axis or even be complex in the presence of broken time-reversal symmetry. This renders impossible the direct analytic continuation with Maximum Entropy methods of numerical results obtained for the anomalous Green function either in Matsubara frequency or in imaginary time. Here we show that one can define auxiliary Green functions that allow one to extract the anomalous spectral weight in the most general multi-orbital spin-singlet or triplet cases with no particular symmetry. As a simple example, we treat the case of lead in Eliashberg theory: Maximum Entropy analytic continuation with auxiliary Green functions (MaxEntAux) allows us to recover spectral functions that change sign on the positive real axis. The approach can be extended to transport quantities.