https://kaust.zoom.us/j/92153584349

ABSTRACT: The recent discovery of AV3Sb5 (A=K,Rb,Cs) has uncovered an intriguing arena for exotic Fermi surface instabilities in kagome metals. Aside from charge density wave order, a multi-dome superconducting phase is found, with strong indications to be of unconventional origin. We find that the sublattice interference mechanism is necessary and sufficient to uncover the nature of unconventional particle-hole and particle-particle pairing in the V net kagome metals. We predict a Peierls-type charge density wave with finite relative angular momentum and orbital current formation. With regard to the possible nature of unconventional pairing, we find a rich phase diagram depending on the range of the screened electronic interactions, the multi-orbital content, and the location of multiple van Hove singularities with respect to the Fermi level. Combined, kagome metals open a new domain of unconventional electronic order, unfolding a plethora of fascinating experimental and theoretical investigations.

BIOGRAPHY: Ronny Thomale studied physics and computer sciences at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. In 2008 he graduated from the University of Karlsruhe with a PhD thesis on fractional excitations in low-dimensional spin systems. After two postdoctoral positions in Princeton as Humboldt Feodor Lynen Fellow and Stanford as a Fellow of the Stanfort Institute for Theoretical Physics, Ronny Thomale accepted a tenure track professorship position at the EPF Lausanne, Switzerland in 2012, followed up by taking a permanent position as full professor at the Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg in 2013 where he has been located since. Prof. Dr. Thomale’s field of expertise covers large areas of condensed matter physics. Among other prizes and awards, Ronny Thomale was given the Outstanding Referee Award by the American Physical Society in 2014 and the Sackler International Prize in Physics in 2020.