Temperature Dependence of the Magnetic Penetration Depth and Nodal Gap Structure of UPt$_3$ from Small Angle Neutron Scattering

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 $^3$He 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 UPt$_3$ 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 $L=3$ odd parity state for which one of the three thermodynamic phases in non-zero magnetic field is chiral.