Fermi-Liquid Approach for Superconducting Kondo Problems

Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Nov 16;121(20):207701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.207701.

Abstract

We present a Fermi liquid approach to superconducting Kondo problems applicable when the Kondo temperature is large compared to the superconducting gap. To illustrate the theory, we study the current-phase relation and the Andreev level spectrum for an Anderson impurity between two s-wave superconductors. In the particle-hole symmetric Kondo limit, we find a 4π periodic Andreev spectrum. The 4π periodicity persists under a small voltage bias which however causes an asymmetric distortion of Andreev levels. The latter distinguishes the present 4π effect from the one in topological Majorana junctions.