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arXiv:1804.02000 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Scale invariance as the cause of the superconducting dome in the cuprates

Zhidong Leong, Kridsanaphong Limtragool, Chandan Setty, Philip Phillips

Published Nov 1, 2018• 2 citations
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Abstract

Recent photoemission spectroscopy measurements (T. J. Reber et al., arXiv:1509.01611) of cuprate superconductors have inferred that the self-energy exhibits critical scaling over an extended doping regime, thereby calling into question the conventional wisdom that critical scaling exists only at isolated points. In particular, this new state of matter, dubbed a power-law liquid, has a self-energy whose imaginary part scales as ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}^{\ensuremath{'}\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\sim}{({\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}+{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}{T}^{2})}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$, with $\ensuremath{\alpha}=1$ in the overdoped Fermi-liquid state and $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}0.5$ in the optimal to underdoped regime. Previously, we showed that this self-energy can arise from interactions between electrons and unparticles, a scale-invariant sector that naturally emerges from strong correlations. Here, taking the self-energy as a given, we first reconstruct the real part of the self-energy. We find that the resultant quasiparticle weight vanishes for any doping level less than optimal, implying an absence of particlelike excitations in the underdoped regime. Consequently, the Fermi velocity vanishes and the effective mass diverges for $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}\frac{1}{2}$, in agreement with earlier experimental observations. We then use the self-energy to reconstruct the spectral function and compute the superconducting ${T}_{c}$ within the BCS formalism. We find that the ${T}_{c}$ has a domelike structure, implying that broad scale invariance manifested in the form of a power-law liquid is the likely cause of the superconducting dome in the cuprates.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.98.184501

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Recent photoemission spectroscopy measurements (T. J. Reber et al., arXiv:1509.01611) on cuprate superconductors have inferred that over a wide range of doping, the imaginary part of the electron self-energy scales as ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}^{\ensuremath{''}}\ensuremath{\sim}{({\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}+{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{2}{T}^{2})}^{a}$ with a=1a=1a=1 in the overdoped Fermi-liquid state and a<0.5a<0.5a<0.5 in the optimal to underdoped regime. We show that this non-Fermi-liquid scaling behavior can naturally be explained by the presence of a scale-invariant state of matter known as unparticles. We evaluate analytically the electron self-energy due to interactions with fermionic unparticles. We find that, in agreement with experiments, the imaginary part of the self-energy scales with respect to temperature and energy as ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}^{\ensuremath{''}}\ensuremath{\sim}{T}^{2+2\ensuremath{\alpha}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2+2\ensuremath{\alpha}}$, where $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ is the anomalous dimension of the unparticle propagator. In addition, the calculated occupancy and susceptibility of fermionic unparticles, unlike those of normal fermions, have significant spectral weights even at high energies. This unconventional behavior is attributed to the branch cut in the unparticle propagator which broadens the unparticle spectral function over a wide energy range and nontrivially alters the scattering phase space by enhancing (suppressing) the intrinsic susceptibility at low energies for negative (positive) $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. Our work presents evidence suggesting that unparticles might be important low-energy degrees of freedom in strongly coupled systems such as the cuprate superconductors.
Recent photoemission experiments [1] reveal that the excitations along the nodal region in the strange metal phase of the cuprates, rather than corresponding to poles in the single-particle Green function, exhibit power-law scaling as a function of frequency and temperature. Because such power-law scaling is indicative of a scale-invariant sector, as a first step, we perturbatively evaluate the electron self-energy due to interactions with scale-invariant unparticles. We focus on a G0W{G}_{0}WG0​W-type diagram with an interaction WWW mediated by a bosonic scalar unparticle. We find that in the high-temperature limit, the imaginary part of the self-energy $\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ is linear in temperature. In the low-temperature limit, $\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ exhibits the same power law in both temperature and frequency, with an exponent that depends on the scaling dimension of an unparticle operator. Such behavior is qualitatively consistent with the experimental observations. We then expand the unparticle propagator into coherent and incoherent contributions and study how the incoherent part violates the density of states (DOS) and density-density correlation function sum rules (f-sum rule). Such violations, in principle, can be observed experimentally. Our work indicates that the physical mechanism for the origin of the power-law scaling is the incoherent background, which is generated from the Mott-scale physics.
Theoretical attempts to explain the origin of high temperature superconductivity are challenged by the complexity of the normal state, which exhibits three regimes with increasing hole doping: a pseudo-gap regime when underdoped, strange power laws near optimal doping and more conventional metallic behavior when heavily overdoped. We suggest that the origin of this behavior is linked to a zero temperature quantum phase transition separating the overdoped Fermi liquid from a spin-charge separated underdoped phase. Central to our analysis is a new Z2Z_2Z2​ gauge theory formulation, which supports topological vortex excitations - dubbed visons. The visons are gapped in the underdoped phase, splitting the electron's charge and Fermi statistics into two separate excitations. Superconductivity occurs when the resulting charge eee boson condenses. The visons are condensed in the overdoped phase, thereby confining the charge and statistics of the electron leading to a Fermi liquid phase. Right at the quantum confinement transition the visons are in a critical state, leading to power law behavior for both charge and spin.
A tale of two pairs: on the origin of the pseudogap end point in the high-Tc_{c}c​ cuprate superconductors
There are two seemingly unrelated puzzles about the cuprate superconductors. The first puzzle concerns the strong non-BCS behavior around xcx_{c}xc​, the end point of the superconducting dome on the overdoped side, where the cuparte is believed to be well described by the fermi liquid theory. This is the most evident in the observed ρs(0)−Tcρ_{s}(0)-T_{c}ρs​(0)−Tc​ scaling and the large amount of uncondensed optical spectral weight at low energy. The second puzzle concerns the remarkable robustness of the d-wave pairing against the inevitable disorder effect in such a doped system, which is also totally unexpected from the conventional BCS picture. Here we show that these two puzzles are deeply connected to the origin of a third puzzle about the cuprate superconductors, namely, the mysterious quantum critical behavior observed around x∗x^{*}x∗, the so-called pseudogap end point. Through a systematic variational optimization of the disordered 2D t−Jt-Jt−J model from the resonating valence bond(RVB) perspective, we find that the d-wave pairing in this model is remarkably more robust against the disorder effect than that in a conventional d-wave BCS superconductor. We find that such remarkable robustness can be attributed to the spin-charge separation mechanism in the RVB picture, through which the d-wave RVB pairing of the charge neutral spinons becomes essentially immune to the impurity potential except for the secondary effect related to the modulation of the local doping level by the disorder. We propose that there exists a Mott transition at x∗x^{*}x∗, where the RVB pairing in the underdoped regime is transmuted into the increasingly more BCS-like pairing for x>x∗x>x^{*}x>x∗, whose increasing fragility against the disorder effect leads to the non-BCS behavior and the ultimate suppression of superconductivity around xcx_{c}xc​.
There are two seemingly unrelated puzzles about the cuprate superconductors. The first puzzle concerns the strong non-BCS behavior around xc{x}_{c}xc​, the end point of the superconducting dome on the overdoped side, where the cuprate is believed to be well described by the Fermi-liquid theory. This is the most evident in the observed ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}(0)\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}$ scaling and the large amount of uncondensed optical spectral weight at low energy. The second puzzle concerns the remarkable robustness of the ddd-wave pairing against the inevitable disorder effect in such a doped system, which is also totally unexpected from the conventional BCS picture. Here we show that these two puzzles are deeply connected to the origin of a third puzzle about the cuprate superconductors, namely, the mysterious quantum critical behavior observed around x∗{x}^{*}x∗, the so called pseudogap end point. Through a systematic variational Monte Carlo (VMC) study of the disordered 2D $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model from the resonating valence bond (RVB) perspective, we find that the ddd-wave pairing in this model is remarkably more robust against the disorder effect than that in a conventional ddd-wave BCS superconductor. We find that such remarkable robustness can be attributed to the spin-charge separation mechanism in the RVB picture, through which the ddd-wave RVB pairing of the charge-neutral spinons becomes essentially immune to the disorder potential except for the secondary effect related to the modulation of the local doping level by the disorder. We propose that there exists a Mott transition at x∗{x}^{*}x∗, where the RVB pairing in the underdoped regime is transmuted into the increasingly more BCS-like pairing for x>x∗x>{x}^{*}x>x∗, whose increasing fragility against the disorder effect leads to the non-BCS behavior and the ultimate suppression of superconductivity around xc{x}_{c}xc​.
The anomalous strange metal phase found in high-T c cuprates does not follow the conventional condensed-matter principles enshrined in the Fermi liquid and presents a great challenge for theory.Highly precise experimental determination of the electronic self-energy can provide a test bed for theoretical models of strange metals, and angle-resolved photoemission can provide this as a function of frequency, momentum, temperature and doping.Here we show that constant energy cuts through the nodal spectral function in (Pb,Bi) 2 Sr 2-x La x CuO 6+δ have a non-Lorentzian lineshape, consistent with a selfenergy that is k dependent.This provides a new test for aspiring theories.Here we show that the experimental data are captured remarkably well by a power law with a k-dependent scaling exponent smoothly evolving with doping, a description that emerges naturally from anti-de Sitter/conformal-field-theory based semi-holography.This puts a spotlight on holographic methods for the quantitative modelling of strongly interacting quantum materials like the cuprate strange metals.The rich temperature versus doping diagram of the cuprate high-T c superconductors presents a cornucopia of non-conformity 1 .The superconductivity does not follow BCS theory anywhere in the phase diagram 2,3 , and in their normal state these unusual metals display qualitatively different experimental behaviour compared to the Fermi liquid, with the linear-in-T resistivity and quadratic-in-T Hall angle being among the most strange.One intriguing possible explanation of strange metal phenomenology is that it is controlled by a strongly interacting quantum critical phase.If so, the question follows whether their properties can be