Second-order perturbation theory for the single-impurity Anderson model of a BCS superconductor

This paper presents a conserving approximation for a single magnetic impurity embedded in a BCS superconductor according to the Anderson model. The calculation generalizes the second-order selfenergy theory of a normal metal host into a superconducting medium. Within the second-order theory, both spin and pairing fluctuations contribute to the selfenergy. The second-order theory removes the unphysical spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Hartree-Fock approximation but results in a doubling of the bound-state spectrum within the energy gap. The HF bound states may be recovered in the small-U limit as the average of the two separate bound states. For increasing U, the novel pronounced low-energy bound states tend towards the center of the gap while the other bound states approach the gap edge and their spectral weights vanish. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.