Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1104.5022 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Fermi surfaces and gauge-gravity duality

Liza Huijse, Subir Sachdev A

Published Jul 5, 2011• 82 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We give a unified overview of the zero temperature phases of compressible quantum matter: i.e., phases in which the expectation value of a globally conserved U(1) density, $\mathcal{Q}$, varies smoothly as a function of parameters. Provided the global U(1) and translational symmetries are unbroken, such phases are expected to have Fermi surfaces, and the Luttinger theorem relates the volumes enclosed by these Fermi surfaces to $⟨\mathcal{Q}⟩$. We survey models of interacting bosons and/or fermions and/or gauge fields which realize such phases. Some phases have Fermi surfaces with the singularities of Landau's Fermi liquid theory, while other Fermi surfaces have non-Fermi liquid singularities. Compressible phases found in models applicable to condensed-matter systems are argued to also be present in models obtained by applying chemical potentials (and other deformations allowed by the residual symmetry at nonzero chemical potential) to the paradigmatic supersymmetric gauge theories underlying gauge-gravity duality: the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena model in spatial dimension $d=2$, and the $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory in $d=3$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.84.026001

Related papers

What Can Gauge-Gravity Duality Teach Us About Condensed Matter Physics?

Subir Sachdev A

I discuss the impact of gauge-gravity duality on our understanding of two classes of systems: conformal quantum matter and compressible quantum matter. The first conformal class includes systems, such as the boson Hubbard model in two spatial dimensions, which display quantum critical points described by conformal field theories. Questions associated with nonzero temperature dynamics and transport are difficult to answer using conventional field-theoretic methods. I argue that many of these can be addressed systematically using gauge-gravity duality and discuss the prospects for reliable computation of low-frequency correlations. Compressible quantum matter is characterized by the smooth dependence of the charge density, associated with a global U(1) symmetry, upon a chemical potential. Familiar examples are solids, superfluids, and Fermi liquids, but there are more exotic possibilities involving deconfined phases of gauge fields in the presence of Fermi surfaces. I survey the compressible systems studied using gauge-gravity duality and discuss their relationship to the condensed matter classification of such states. The gravity methods offer hope of a deeper understanding of exotic and strongly coupled compressible quantum states.

arXiv:1108.1197•Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics•Mar 1, 2011•246 citations

Compressible quantum phases from conformal field theories in 2+1 dimensions

Subir Sachdev A

Conformal field theories (CFTs) with a globally conserved U(1) charge $\mathcal{Q}$ can be deformed into compressible phases by modifying their Hamiltonian, $\mathcal{H}$, by a chemical potential $\mathcal{H}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathcal{H}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathcal{Q}$. We study $2+1$ dimensional CFTs upon which an explicit $S$ duality mapping can be performed. We find that this construction leads naturally to compressible phases which are superfluids, solids, or non-Fermi liquids which are more appropriately called ``Bose metals'' in the present context. The Bose metal preserves all symmetries and has Fermi surfaces of gauge-charged fermions, even in cases where the parent CFT can be expressed solely by bosonic degrees of freedom. Monopole operators are identified as order parameters of the solids, and the product of their magnetic charge and $\mathcal{Q}$ determines the area of the unit cell. We present implications for holographic theories on asymptotically ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{4}$ spacetimes: $S$ duality and monopole/dyon fields play important roles in this connection.

arXiv:1209.1637•Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields•Dec 19, 2012•32 citations

Non-Fermi Liquids as Ersatz Fermi Liquids: General Constraints on Compressible Metals

Dominic V. Else, Ryan Thorngren, T. Senthil

A system with charge conservation and lattice translation symmetry has a well-defined filling ν, which is a real number representing the average charge per unit cell.We show that if ν is fractional (i.e., not an integer), this imposes very strong constraints on the low-energy theory of the system and give a framework to understand such constraints in great generality, vastly generalizing the Luttinger and Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems.The most powerful constraint comes about if ν is continuously tunable (i.e., the system is charge compressible), in which case, we show that the low-energy theory must have a very large emergent symmetry group-larger than any compact Lie group.An example is the Fermi surface of a Fermi liquid, where the charge at every point on the Fermi surface is conserved.We expect that in many, if not all, cases, even exotic non-Fermi liquids will have the same emergent symmetry group as a Fermi liquid, even though they could have very different dynamics.We call a system with this property an ersatz Fermi liquid.We show that ersatz Fermi liquids share a number of properties in common with Fermi liquids, including Luttinger's theorem (which is thus extended to a large class of non-Fermi liquids) and periodic "quantum oscillations" in the response to an applied magnetic field.We also establish versions of Luttinger's theorem for the composite Fermi liquid in quantum Hall systems and for spinon Fermi surfaces in Mott insulators.Our work makes a connection between filling constraints and the theory of symmetry-protected topological phases, in particular through the concept of "'t Hooft anomalies."

arXiv:2007.07896•Physical Review X•Apr 6, 2021•90 citations

Schrödinger Fermi liquids

Juven Wang

A class of strongly interacting many-body fermionic systems in $2+1$-dimensional nonrelativistic conformal field theory is examined via the gauge-gravity duality correspondence. The five-dimensional charged black hole with asymptotic Schr\"odinger isometry in the bulk gravity side introduces parameters of background density and finite particle number into the boundary field theory. We propose the holographic dictionary, and realize a quantum phase transition of this fermionic liquid with fixed particle number by tuning the background density $\ensuremath{\beta}$ at zero temperature. On the larger $\ensuremath{\beta}$ side, we find the signal of a sharp quasiparticle pole on the spectral function $A(k,\ensuremath{\omega})$, indicating a well-defined Fermi surface. On the smaller $\ensuremath{\beta}$ side, we find only a hump with no sharp peak for $A(k,\ensuremath{\omega})$, indicating the disappearance of the Fermi surface. The dynamical exponent $z$ of quasiparticle dispersion goes from being Fermi-liquid-like $z\ensuremath{\simeq}1$ scaling at larger $\ensuremath{\beta}$ to a non-Fermi-liquid scaling $z\ensuremath{\simeq}3/2$ at smaller $\ensuremath{\beta}$. By comparing the structure of Green's function with Landau Fermi liquid theory and Senthil's scaling ansatz, we further investigate the behavior of this quantum phase transition.

arXiv:1301.1986•Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields•Feb 27, 2014•9 citations

Non-Fermi Liquids as Ersatz Fermi Liquids: General Constraints on Compressible Metals

Dominic V. Else, Ryan Thorngren, T. Senthil

A system with charge conservation and lattice translation symmetry has a well-defined filling ν, which is a real number representing the average charge per unit cell. We show that if ν is fractional (i.e., not an integer), this imposes very strong constraints on the low-energy theory of the system and give a framework to understand such constraints in great generality, vastly generalizing the Luttinger and Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems. The most powerful constraint comes about if ν is continuously tunable (i.e., the system is charge compressible), in which case, we show that the low-energy theory must have a very large emergent symmetry group—larger than any compact Lie group. An example is the Fermi surface of a Fermi liquid, where the charge at every point on the Fermi surface is conserved. We expect that in many, if not all, cases, even exotic non-Fermi liquids will have the same emergent symmetry group as a Fermi liquid, even though they could have very different dynamics. We call a system with this property an ersatz Fermi liquid. We show that ersatz Fermi liquids share a number of properties in common with Fermi liquids, including Luttinger's theorem (which is thus extended to a large class of non-Fermi liquids) and periodic "quantum oscillations" in the response to an applied magnetic field. We also establish versions of Luttinger's theorem for the composite Fermi liquid in quantum Hall systems and for spinon Fermi surfaces in Mott insulators. Our work makes a connection between filling constraints and the theory of symmetry-protected topological phases, in particular through the concept of "'t Hooft anomalies."Received 17 August 2020Revised 22 December 2020Accepted 21 January 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021005Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasAnomaliesFermi surfacePhysical SystemsStrongly correlated systemsTechniquesFermi liquid theoryNon-Fermi-liquid theorySymmetries in condensed matterCondensed Matter & Materials Physics

•Jan 1, 2021•80 citations

Fermi liquids, and their phase transitions

Subir Sachdev A

The Fermi liquid is perhaps the most familiar quantum many-body state of solid state physics; we met it briefly in Section 16.2.2. It is the generic state of fermions at nonzero density, and is found in all metals. Its basic characteristics can already be understood in a simple free fermion picture. Noninteracting fermions occupy the lowest energy single-particle states, consistent with the exclusion principle. This leads to the fundamental concept of the Fermi surface: a surface in momentum space separating the occupied and empty single fermion states. The lowest energy excitations then consist of quasiparticle excitations which are particle-like outside the Fermi surface, and hole-like inside the Fermi surface. Landau's Fermi liquid theory is a careful justification for the stability of this simple picture in the presence of interactions between fermions. Just as we found in Chapters 5 and 7 for the quantum Ising and rotor models, interaction corrections modify the wavefunction of the quasiparticle and so introduce a quasiparticle residue A ; however, they do not destabilize the integrity of the quasiparticle, as we review in Section 18.1. The purpose of this chapter is to describe two paradigms of symmetry breaking quantum transitions in Fermi liquids. In the first class, studied in Section 18.2, the broken symmetry is related to the point-group symmetry of the crystal, while translational symmetry is preserved; consequently, the order parameter resides at zero wavevector. In the second class, studied in Section 18.3, the order parameter is at a finite wavevector, and so translational symmetry is also broken.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 7, 2011•1 citation
We give a unified overview of the zero temperature phases of compressible quantum matter: i.e., phases in which the expectation value of a globally conserved U(1) density, Q\mathcal{Q}Q, varies smoothly as a function of parameters. Provided the global U(1) and translational symmetries are unbroken, such phases are expected to have Fermi surfaces, and the Luttinger theorem relates the volumes enclosed by these Fermi surfaces to ⟨Q⟩⟨\mathcal{Q}⟩⟨Q⟩. We survey models of interacting bosons and/or fermions and/or gauge fields which realize such phases. Some phases have Fermi surfaces with the singularities of Landau's Fermi liquid theory, while other Fermi surfaces have non-Fermi liquid singularities. Compressible phases found in models applicable to condensed-matter systems are argued to also be present in models obtained by applying chemical potentials (and other deformations allowed by the residual symmetry at nonzero chemical potential) to the paradigmatic supersymmetric gauge theories underlying gauge-gravity duality: the Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena model in spatial dimension d=2d=2d=2, and the N=4\mathcal{N}=4N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in d=3d=3d=3.
I discuss the impact of gauge-gravity duality on our understanding of two classes of systems: conformal quantum matter and compressible quantum matter. The first conformal class includes systems, such as the boson Hubbard model in two spatial dimensions, which display quantum critical points described by conformal field theories. Questions associated with nonzero temperature dynamics and transport are difficult to answer using conventional field-theoretic methods. I argue that many of these can be addressed systematically using gauge-gravity duality and discuss the prospects for reliable computation of low-frequency correlations. Compressible quantum matter is characterized by the smooth dependence of the charge density, associated with a global U(1) symmetry, upon a chemical potential. Familiar examples are solids, superfluids, and Fermi liquids, but there are more exotic possibilities involving deconfined phases of gauge fields in the presence of Fermi surfaces. I survey the compressible systems studied using gauge-gravity duality and discuss their relationship to the condensed matter classification of such states. The gravity methods offer hope of a deeper understanding of exotic and strongly coupled compressible quantum states.
Conformal field theories (CFTs) with a globally conserved U(1) charge Q\mathcal{Q}Q can be deformed into compressible phases by modifying their Hamiltonian, H\mathcal{H}H, by a chemical potential $\mathcal{H}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathcal{H}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathcal{Q}$. We study 2+12+12+1 dimensional CFTs upon which an explicit SSS duality mapping can be performed. We find that this construction leads naturally to compressible phases which are superfluids, solids, or non-Fermi liquids which are more appropriately called ``Bose metals'' in the present context. The Bose metal preserves all symmetries and has Fermi surfaces of gauge-charged fermions, even in cases where the parent CFT can be expressed solely by bosonic degrees of freedom. Monopole operators are identified as order parameters of the solids, and the product of their magnetic charge and Q\mathcal{Q}Q determines the area of the unit cell. We present implications for holographic theories on asymptotically AdS4{\mathrm{AdS}}_{4}AdS4​ spacetimes: SSS duality and monopole/dyon fields play important roles in this connection.
A system with charge conservation and lattice translation symmetry has a well-defined filling ν, which is a real number representing the average charge per unit cell.We show that if ν is fractional (i.e., not an integer), this imposes very strong constraints on the low-energy theory of the system and give a framework to understand such constraints in great generality, vastly generalizing the Luttinger and Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems.The most powerful constraint comes about if ν is continuously tunable (i.e., the system is charge compressible), in which case, we show that the low-energy theory must have a very large emergent symmetry group-larger than any compact Lie group.An example is the Fermi surface of a Fermi liquid, where the charge at every point on the Fermi surface is conserved.We expect that in many, if not all, cases, even exotic non-Fermi liquids will have the same emergent symmetry group as a Fermi liquid, even though they could have very different dynamics.We call a system with this property an ersatz Fermi liquid.We show that ersatz Fermi liquids share a number of properties in common with Fermi liquids, including Luttinger's theorem (which is thus extended to a large class of non-Fermi liquids) and periodic "quantum oscillations" in the response to an applied magnetic field.We also establish versions of Luttinger's theorem for the composite Fermi liquid in quantum Hall systems and for spinon Fermi surfaces in Mott insulators.Our work makes a connection between filling constraints and the theory of symmetry-protected topological phases, in particular through the concept of "'t Hooft anomalies."
A class of strongly interacting many-body fermionic systems in 2+12+12+1-dimensional nonrelativistic conformal field theory is examined via the gauge-gravity duality correspondence. The five-dimensional charged black hole with asymptotic Schr\"odinger isometry in the bulk gravity side introduces parameters of background density and finite particle number into the boundary field theory. We propose the holographic dictionary, and realize a quantum phase transition of this fermionic liquid with fixed particle number by tuning the background density $\ensuremath{\beta}$ at zero temperature. On the larger $\ensuremath{\beta}$ side, we find the signal of a sharp quasiparticle pole on the spectral function $A(k,\ensuremath{\omega})$, indicating a well-defined Fermi surface. On the smaller $\ensuremath{\beta}$ side, we find only a hump with no sharp peak for $A(k,\ensuremath{\omega})$, indicating the disappearance of the Fermi surface. The dynamical exponent zzz of quasiparticle dispersion goes from being Fermi-liquid-like $z\ensuremath{\simeq}1$ scaling at larger $\ensuremath{\beta}$ to a non-Fermi-liquid scaling $z\ensuremath{\simeq}3/2$ at smaller $\ensuremath{\beta}$. By comparing the structure of Green's function with Landau Fermi liquid theory and Senthil's scaling ansatz, we further investigate the behavior of this quantum phase transition.
A system with charge conservation and lattice translation symmetry has a well-defined filling ν, which is a real number representing the average charge per unit cell. We show that if ν is fractional (i.e., not an integer), this imposes very strong constraints on the low-energy theory of the system and give a framework to understand such constraints in great generality, vastly generalizing the Luttinger and Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems. The most powerful constraint comes about if ν is continuously tunable (i.e., the system is charge compressible), in which case, we show that the low-energy theory must have a very large emergent symmetry group—larger than any compact Lie group. An example is the Fermi surface of a Fermi liquid, where the charge at every point on the Fermi surface is conserved. We expect that in many, if not all, cases, even exotic non-Fermi liquids will have the same emergent symmetry group as a Fermi liquid, even though they could have very different dynamics. We call a system with this property an ersatz Fermi liquid. We show that ersatz Fermi liquids share a number of properties in common with Fermi liquids, including Luttinger's theorem (which is thus extended to a large class of non-Fermi liquids) and periodic "quantum oscillations" in the response to an applied magnetic field. We also establish versions of Luttinger's theorem for the composite Fermi liquid in quantum Hall systems and for spinon Fermi surfaces in Mott insulators. Our work makes a connection between filling constraints and the theory of symmetry-protected topological phases, in particular through the concept of "'t Hooft anomalies."Received 17 August 2020Revised 22 December 2020Accepted 21 January 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021005Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasAnomaliesFermi surfacePhysical SystemsStrongly correlated systemsTechniquesFermi liquid theoryNon-Fermi-liquid theorySymmetries in condensed matterCondensed Matter & Materials Physics
The Fermi liquid is perhaps the most familiar quantum many-body state of solid state physics; we met it briefly in Section 16.2.2. It is the generic state of fermions at nonzero density, and is found in all metals. Its basic characteristics can already be understood in a simple free fermion picture. Noninteracting fermions occupy the lowest energy single-particle states, consistent with the exclusion principle. This leads to the fundamental concept of the Fermi surface: a surface in momentum space separating the occupied and empty single fermion states. The lowest energy excitations then consist of quasiparticle excitations which are particle-like outside the Fermi surface, and hole-like inside the Fermi surface. Landau's Fermi liquid theory is a careful justification for the stability of this simple picture in the presence of interactions between fermions. Just as we found in Chapters 5 and 7 for the quantum Ising and rotor models, interaction corrections modify the wavefunction of the quasiparticle and so introduce a quasiparticle residue A ; however, they do not destabilize the integrity of the quasiparticle, as we review in Section 18.1. The purpose of this chapter is to describe two paradigms of symmetry breaking quantum transitions in Fermi liquids. In the first class, studied in Section 18.2, the broken symmetry is related to the point-group symmetry of the crystal, while translational symmetry is preserved; consequently, the order parameter resides at zero wavevector. In the second class, studied in Section 18.3, the order parameter is at a finite wavevector, and so translational symmetry is also broken.