Topological Kondo Superconductors
Abstract
Spin-triplet p-wave superconductors are promising candidates for topological superconductors. They have been proposed in various heterostructures where a material with strong spin-orbit interaction is coupled to a conventional s-wave superconductor by proximity effect. However, topological superconductors existing in nature and driven purely by strong electron correlations are yet to be studied. Here we propose a realization of such a system in a class of Kondo lattice materials in the absence of spin-orbit coupling and proximity effect. Therein, the odd-parity Kondo hybridization mediates ferromagnetic spin-spin coupling and leads to spin-triplet resonant-valence-bond (t-RVB) pairing between local moments. Spin-triplet p i p-wave topological superconductivity is reached when Kondo effect co-exists with t-RVB. We identify the topological nature by the non-trivial topological invariant and the Majorana fermions at edges. Our results offer a comprehensive understanding of experimental observations on UTe2, a U-based ferromagnetic heavy-electron superconductor.