Based on the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau approach, we investigate phase solitonic states in a class of three-component superconductors for mesoscopic doubly connected geometry (thin-walled cylinder) in external magnetic fields. Analysis of the Gibbs free energy of the system shows that solitonic states in a three-component superconductor are thermodynamically metastable and separated from the ground state by a sizable energy. Our results demonstrate that despite the presence of a zoo of phase solitons states the earlier proposed method [Phys. Rev. B 96, 144513 (2017)] for the detection of BTRS (broken time-reversal symmetry) in multiband superconductors remains valid and useful.

• Received 31 March 2021
• Revised 8 June 2021
• Accepted 6 July 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.014518