A Short Review of the S₄ Symmetric Microscopic Model for Iron-Based High Temperature Superconductors

We briefly review the recently constructed two orbital microscopic model for iron-based superconductors based on $S_4$ symmetry (PRX 2 021009(2012)). With this faithful representation of the kinematics of the tri-layer FeAs or FeSe structure, the model provides answers and physical pictures to fundamental questions related to the robustness of superconductivity and pairing symmetry, unifies different families of iron-based superconductors, casts new insight into the connections to the other high $T_c$ superconductors, cuprates, and reveals why an s-wave pairing can be stabilized by repulsive interactions. Further progresses include that the model provides a clean understanding of band reconstruction observed in magnetically ordered states, which is a strong support to the kinematics of the $S_4$ model, and captures the essential low energy physics of iron-based superconductors based on numerical results from unbiased quantum Monte Carlo simulation.