Magnetic-field-induced reduction of the low-temperature superfluid density in cuprate superconductors

Abstract

The weak magnetic-field-induced reduction of the low-temperature superfluid density in cuprate superconductors is studied based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. The electromagnetic response kernel is evaluated by considering both couplings of the electron charge and electron magnetic momentum with a weak magnetic field and employed to calculate the superfluid density. Then the main features of the weak magnetic-field-induced reduction of the low-temperature superfluid density are qualitatively reproduced. The theory also shows that the striking behavior of the weak magnetic-field-induced reduction of the low-temperature superfluid density is intriguingly related to both depairing due to the Pauli spin polarization and nonlocal response in the vicinity of the $d$-wave gap nodes on the Fermi surface to a weak magnetic field.