Frequency-Dependent Superconducting States From the Two-Time Linear Response Theory: Application To Sr₂RuO₄

We investigate the possible superconducting instabilities of strongly correlated electron materials using a generalization of linear response theory to external pairing fields depending on frequency. We compute a pairing susceptibility depending on two times, allowing us to capture dynamical pairing and in particular odd-frequency solutions. We first benchmark this method on the attractive one-band Hubbard model and then consider the superconductivity of strontium ruthenate Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ within single-site dynamical mean-field theory, hence restricting ourselves to pairing states which are momentum independent in the orbital basis. The symmetry of the superconducting order parameter of this material is still debated, and local odd-frequency states have been proposed to explain some experimental discrepancies. In the temperature range studied, we find that the leading eigenvectors are odd-frequency intra-orbital spin-triplet states, while the eigenvectors with the highest predicted transition temperature correspond to even-frequency intra-orbital spin-singlet states. The latter include a state with $d$-wave symmetry when expressed in the band basis.