Stability of Nodal Quasiparticles in Superconductors with Coexisting Orders

Abstract

We establish a condition for the perturbative stability of zero energy nodal points in the quasiparticle spectrum of superconductors in the presence of coexisting commensurate orders. The nodes are found to be stable if the Hamiltonian is invariant under time reversal followed by a lattice translation. The principle is demonstrated with a few examples. Some experimental implications of various types of assumed order are discussed in the context of the cuprate superconductors.