Nodal gap structure and order parameter symmetry of the unconventional superconductor UPt3

Abstract

Spanning a broad range of physical systems, complex symmetry breaking is widely recognized as a hallmark of competing interactions. This is exemplified in superfluid 3He which has multiple thermodynamic phases with spin and orbital quantum numbers S = 1 and L = 1, that emerge on cooling from a nearly ferromagnetic Fermi liquid. The heavy fermion compound UPt3 exhibits similar behavior clearly manifest in its multiple superconducting phases. However, consensus as to its order parameter symmetry has remained elusive. Our small angle neutron scattering measurements indicate a linear temperature dependence of the London penetration depth characteristic of nodal structure of the order parameter. Our theoretical analysis is consistent with assignment of its symmetry to an L = 3 odd parity state for which one of the three thermodynamic phases in non-zero magnetic field is chiral.