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arXiv:0802.0199 · Physical Review Letters

Nodal Quasiparticles and the Onset of Spin-Density-Wave Order in Cuprate Superconductors

Andrea Pelissetto C, Subir Sachdev A, Ettore Vicari

Published Jul 11, 2008• 27 citations
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Abstract

We present a theory for the onset of spin-density-wave order in the superconducting ground state of the cuprates. We compute the scaling dimensions of allowed perturbations of a "relativistic" fixed point with O4 x O(3) symmetry, including those associated with the fermionic nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles. Analyses of up to six loops show that all perturbations with square lattice symmetry are likely irrelevant. We demonstrate that the fermion spectral functions are primarily damped by the coupling to fluctuations of a composite field with Ising nematic order. A number of other experimental implications are also discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.101.027005

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We present a theory for the onset of spin-density-wave order in the superconducting ground state of the cuprates. We compute the scaling dimensions of allowed perturbations of a "relativistic" fixed point with O4 x O(3) symmetry, including those associated with the fermionic nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles. Analyses of up to six loops show that all perturbations with square lattice symmetry are likely irrelevant. We demonstrate that the fermion spectral functions are primarily damped by the coupling to fluctuations of a composite field with Ising nematic order. A number of other experimental implications are also discussed.
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We examine the quantum theory of the spontaneous breaking of lattice rotation symmetry in ddd-wave superconductors on the square lattice. This is described by a field theory of an Ising nematic order parameter coupled to the gapless fermionic quasiparticles. We determine the structure of the renormalization group to all orders in a 1/Nf1/{N}_{f}1/Nf​ expansion, where Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ is the number of fermion spin components. Asymptotically exact results are obtained for the quantum critical theory in which, as in the large Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ theory, the nematic order has a large anomalous dimension, and the fermion spectral functions are highly anisotropic.
The ddd-wave high-temperature cuprate superconductor may exhibit a nematic ordering transition at zero temperature. Near the quantum critical point, the coupling between gapless nodal quasiparticles and nematic order parameter fluctuation can result in unusual behaviors, such as extreme anisotropy of fermion velocities. We study the disorder effects on the nematic quantum critical behavior and especially on the flow of fermion velocities. The disorders that couple to nodal quasiparticles are divided into three types: random mass, random gauge field, and random chemical potential. A renormalization-group analysis shows that random mass and random gauge field are both irrelevant and, thus, do not change the fixed point of extreme velocity anisotropy. However, the marginal interaction due to random chemical potential destroys this fixed point and makes the nematic phase transition unstable.
We study the nature of the two-dimensional quantum critical point separating two phases with and without long-range spin-density-wave order, which has been recently observed in cuprate superconductors. We consider the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Hamiltonian associated with the spin-density critical modes, perform a mean-field analysis of the phase diagram, and study the corresponding renormalization-group flow in two different perturbative schemes at five and six loops, respectively. The analysis supports the existence of a stable fixed point in the full theory whose basin of attraction includes systems with collinear spin-density-wave order, as observed in experiments. The stable fixed point is characterized by an enlarged $\mathrm{O}(4)\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\mathrm{O}(3)$ symmetry. The continuous transition observed in experiments is expected to belong to this universality class. The corresponding critical exponents are $\ensuremath{\nu}=0.9(2)$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}=0.15(10)$.
We study the properties of a spin-density-wave antiferromagnetic mean-field ground state with d-wave superconducting correlations. This ground state always gains energy by Cooper pairing. It would fail to superconduct at half-filling due to the antiferromagnetic gap although its particle-like excitations would be Bogolyubov-BCS quasiparticles consisting of coherent mixtures of electrons and holes. More interesting and relevant to the superconducting cuprates is the case when antiferromagnetic order is turned on weakly on top of the superconductivity. This would correspond to the onset of antiferromagnetism at a critical doping. In such a case a small gap proportional to the weak antiferromagnetic gap opens up for nodal quasiparticles, and the quasiparticle peak would be discernible. We evaluate numerically the absorption by nodal quasiparticles and the local density of states for several ground states with antiferromagnetic and d-wave superconducting correlations.
We study the properties of a spin-density-wave antiferromagnetic mean-field ground state with d-wave superconducting (DSC) correlations. This ground state always gains energy by Cooper pairing. It would fail to superconduct at half-filling due to the antiferromagnetic gap although its particle-like excitations would be Bogolyubov-BCS quasiparticles consisting of coherent mixtures of electrons and holes. More interesting and relevant to the superconducting cuprates is the case when antiferromagnetic order is turned on weakly on top of the superconductivity. This would correspond to the onset of antiferromagnetism at a critical doping. In such a case a small gap proportional to the weak antiferromagnetic gap opens up for nodal quasiparticles, and the quasiparticle peak would be discernible. We evaluate numerically the absorption by nodal quasiparticles and the local density of states for several ground states with antiferromagnetic and d-wave superconducting correlations.