Quantum Monte Carlo Study of Pairing Symmetry and Correlation in Iron-based Superconductors

Abstract

We perform a systematic quantum Monte Carlo study of the pairing correlation in the $S_4$ symmetric microscopic model for iron-based superconductors. It is found that the pairing with an extensive s-wave symmetry robustly dominates over other pairings at low temperature in reasonable parameter region. The pairing susceptibility, the effective pairing interaction and the $(π,0)$antiferromagnetic correlation strongly increase as the on-site Coulomb interaction increases, indicating the importance of the effect of electron-electron correlation. Our non-biased numerical results provide a unified understanding of superconducting mechanism in iron-pnictides and iron-chalcogenides and demonstrate that the superconductivity is driven by strong electron-electron correlation effects.

Accepted for publication as a Letter in Physical Review Letters, and more discussions are added