Criterion for Vestigial Order above a Nematic Superconductor

Abstract

A nematic superconductor can in principle support a vestigial order phase above its superconducting transition temperature, with rotational symmetry spontaneously broken while remain nonsuperconducting. We examine the condition for this vestigial nematic order to occur, within a Ginzburg-Landau theory with order parameter fluctuations included. Contrary to prior theoretical results, we found that this vestigial order actually requires very stringent conditions to be met: the material must be sufficiently deep in the nematic regime (i.e. far away from the boundary separating the nematic and chiral superconducting phases) to possibly exhibit a vestigial nematic order.