Unconventional Superconductivity in MgCNi3

Abstract

A multiband superconductor with a conventional phonon mechanism can develop an unconventional state with a nontrivial order parameter phase relation between the individual bands. We propose that such a state can explain recent experimental results on MgCNi3, which are suggestive of both s-wave pairing symmetry and of unconventional superconductivity. We show that such a state gives rise to Andreev bound states, and to spontaneous currents, at surfaces and around impurities. We also investigate possible phase transitions between states with different order parameter symmetry.