The Berry curvature of the Bogoliubov quasiparticle Bloch states in the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4

Abstract

We will extend the concept of electron band Berry curvatures to superconducting materials. We show that this can be defined for the Bogoliubov–de Gennes equation describing the superconducting state in a periodic crystal. In addition, the concept is exploited to understand the driving mechanism for the optical Kerr effect in time reversal symmetry breaking superconductors. Finally, we establish a sum rule analogue to the normal state Hall sum rule making quantitative contact between the imaginary part of the optical conductivity and the Berry curvature. The general theory will be applied and tested against the drosophila of the p-wave paired materials Sr2RuO4.