Pairing symmetry and properties of iron-based high-temperature superconductors

Pairing symmetry is important to indentify the pairing mechanism. The analysis becomes particularly timely and important for the newly discovered iron-based multi-orbital superconductors. From the group theory point of view we classified all pairing matrices (in the orbital space) that carry irreducible representations of the system. The quasiparticle gap falls into three categories: full, nodal and gapless. The nodal-gap states show conventional Volovik effect even for on-site pairing. The gapless states are odd in the orbital space, have a negative superfluid density and are therefore unstable. In connection to experiments we proposed possible pairing states and implications for the pairing mechanism. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009