FTPI Researchers Uncover New Mechanism for Unconventional Superconductivity

Fine Theoretical Physics Institute postdoc researcher Yasha Gindikin and Professor Alex Kamenev recently published a paper highlighted by Physics Magazine for its potential to reshape our understanding of how electrons pair and form exotic correlated phases. Their article, “Electron Interactions in Rashba Materials,” explores a long-overlooked effect—called pair spin–orbit interaction (PSOI)—first put forth at the dawn of relativistic quantum mechanics, and now shown to be unexpectedly important in materials which exhibit a strong Rashba effect, where spin–orbit coupling allows electron spins to align without magnetic fields.

By uncovering how Berry curvature affects interactions in Rashba materials, Gindikin and Kamenev demonstrate that the electron–electron potential gains a spin- and momentum-dependent component—a direct manifestation of quantum geometric effects. Such interactions give rise to a host of novel and surprising collective phenomena, opening entirely new avenues for superconducting spintronics.

 

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