Superconductivity in MgB2 Revisited: Analytic Solution of Electrons, Phonons, and Their Coupling in an sp2 Bonded System

ORAL

Abstract

MgB2, a superconductor with Tc=39 K, is revisited from a symmetry-driven viewpoint. We construct minimal analytic models for its electrons, phonons, and electron–phonon coupling (EPC) with minimal ab initio input. Strong in-plane B sp2 bonding yields an obstructed effective kagome lattice centered on B–B bonds, naturally producing a small sigma-band Fermi surface with pronounced quantum geometry. The phonon spectrum mirrors that of graphene, with the intercalated Mg hosting low-frequency modes that lift the overall B branches. By symmetry, the boron bond-stretching modes are the only GM-point phonon that couple to the sigma Fermi surface, and thus dominate the EPC. Upon electron doping towards the 2-fold degenerate band edge of the sigma Fermi surface, a decreasing DOS competes with increasing EPC matrix elements. At low doping, the EPC enhancement prevails and raises Tc. Within a Gaussian approximation, we trace this to the quantum-geometric contribution that peaks at GM. Our framework offers a transparent, symmetry-based account of high-Tc phonon-mediated superconductivity in MgB2 and provides quantum-geometry predictors for doping trends.

*Y.J. was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 101020833), as well as by the IKUR Strategy under the collaboration agreement between Ikerbasque Foundation and DIPC on behalf of the Department of Education of the Basque Government. BAB and H.H. were supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. GBMF8685 towards the Princeton theory program, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's EPiQS Initiative (Grant No. GBMF11070), the Office of Naval Research (ONR Grant No. N00014-20-1-2303), the Global Collaborative Network Grant at Princeton University, the Simons Investigator Grant No. 404513, the BSF Israel US foundation No. 2018226, the NSF-MERSEC (Grant No. MERSEC DMR 2011750), the Simons Collaboration on New Frontiers in Superconductivity (Grant No. SFI-MPS-NFS-00006741-01), Princeton Catalysis Initiative, and the Schmidt Foundation at the Princeton University.

Presenters

  • Yi Jiang

    • Donostia International Physics Center

Authors

  • Yi Jiang

    • Donostia International Physics Center
  • Haoyu Hu

    • Princeton University
  • Dumitru Calugaru

    • University of Oxford
  • Junze Deng

    • Aalto University
  • Paivi E Torma

    • Aalto University
  • Andrei B Bernevig

    • Princeton University
    • Department of Physics, Princeton University