Spin-orbit coupling and spin-triplet pairing symmetry in Sr2RuO4

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays a crucial role in determining the spin structure of an odd parity psedospin-triplet Cooper pairing state. Here, we present a thorough study of how SOC lifts the degeneracy among different p-wave pseudospin-triplet pairing states in a widely used microscopic model for Sr2RuO4, combining a Ginzburg-Landau (GL) free energy expansion, a symmetry analysis of the model, and numerical weak-coupling renormalization group (RG) and random phase approximation (RPA) calculations. These analyses are then used to critically re-examine previous numerical results on the stability of chiral p-wave pairing. The symmetry analysis can serve as a guide for future studies, especially numerical calculations, on the pairing instability in Sr2RuO4 and can be useful for studying other multiband spin-triplet superconductors where SOC plays an important role.