Hydrodynamical charge density wave description for transport in the strange metal phase of cuprates
Andrea Amoretti, Martina Meinero, Daniel K. Brattan, Federico Caglieris, E. Giannini, M. Affronte, Christian Heß, Bernd Buechner, Nicodemo Magnoli, Marina Putti
The mechanism controlling the exotic behavior of the transport properties in the strange metallic phase of high temperature superconductors is one of the main unresolved problems in condensed matter physics. Recent experimental observations have proven that space-time symmetry breaking due to charge density wave orderings is an ubiquitous feature of the phase diagram of high temperature superconductors and plays a dominant role in determining the transport properties of these materials. In this paper we show that in the strange metal phase of the cuprates, a whole set of transport coefficients are described by a universal hydrodynamic framework once one accounts for the effects of quantum critical charge density waves. We corroborate our theoretical prediction by measuring the DC transport properties of Bi-2201 close to optimal doping, proving the validity of our approach. Our argument does not assume any specific microscopic mechanism, relying only on the symmetries of the system, and can be used as a consistency check to understand the universality class governing the behavior of cuprate high temperature superconductors.
The mechanism controlling the exotic behavior of the transport properties in the strange metallic phase of high temperature superconductors is one of the main unresolved problems in condensed matter physics. Recent experimental observations have proven that space-time symmetry breaking due to charge density wave orderings is an ubiquitous feature of the phase diagram of high temperature superconductors and plays a dominant role in determining the transport properties of these materials. In this paper we show that in the strange metal phase of the cuprates, a whole set of transport coefficients are described by a universal hydrodynamic framework once one accounts for the effects of quantum critical charge density waves. We corroborate our theoretical prediction by measuring the DC transport properties of Bi-2201 close to optimal doping, proving the validity of our approach. Our argument does not assume any specific microscopic mechanism, relying only on the symmetries of the system, and can be used as a consistency check to understand the universality class governing the behavior of cuprate high temperature superconductors.
High-temperature superconductors are strongly coupled systems which present a complicated phase diagram with many coexisting phases. This makes it difficult to understand the mechanism which generates their singular transport properties. Hydrodynamics, which mostly relies on the symmetries of the system without referring to any specific microscopic mechanism, constitutes a promising framework to analyze these materials. In this paper we show that, in the strange metal phase of the cuprates, a whole set of transport coefficients are described by a universal hydrodynamic framework once one accounts for the effects of quantum critical charge-density waves. We corroborate our theoretical prediction by measuring the DC transport properties of Bi-2201 close to optimal doping, proving the validity of our approach. Our argument can be used as a consistency check to understand the universality class governing the behavior of high-temperature cuprate superconductors.
Abstract The mysterious metallic phase showing T-linear resistivity and a universal scattering rate 1 / τ = α P k B T / ℏ with a universal prefactor α P ∼ 1 and logarithmic-in-temperature singular specific heat coefficient, the so-called ‘Planckian metal phase’ was observed in various overdoped high- T c cuprate superconductors over a finite range in doping. Revealing the mystery of the Planckian metal state is believed to be the key to understanding the mechanism for high- T c superconductivity. Here, we propose a generic microscopic mechanism for this state based on quantum-critical local bosonic charge Kondo fluctuations coupled to both spinon and a heavy conduction-electron Fermi surface within the heavy-fermion formulation of the slave-boson t–J model. By a controlled perturbative renormalization group analysis, we examine the competition between the pseudogap phase, characterized by Anderson’s Resonating-Valence-Bond spin-liquid, and the Fermi-liquid state, modeled by the electron hopping (effective charge Kondo effect). We find a quantum-critical metallic phase with a universal Planckian ℏ ω / k B T scaling in scattering rate near an extended localized-delocalized (pseudogap-to-Fermi liquid) charge-Kondo breakdown transition. The d-wave superconducting ground state emerges near the transition. Unprecedented qualitative and quantitative agreements are reached between our theoretical predictions and various experiments, including optical conductivity, universal doping-independent field-to-temperature scaling in magnetoresistance, specific heat coefficient, marginal Fermi-liquid spectral function observed in ARPES, and Fermi surface reconstruction observed in Hall coefficients in various overdoped cuprates. Our mechanism offers a microscopic understanding of the quantum-critical Planckian metal phase observed in cuprates and its link to the pseudogap, d-wave superconducting, and Fermi liquid phases. It offers a promising route for understanding how d-wave superconductivity emerges from such a strange metal phase in cuprates–one of the long-standing open problems in condensed matter physics since 1990s–as well as shows a broader implication for the Planckian strange metal states observed in other correlated unconventional superconductors.
The mysterious metallic phase showing perfect T-linear resistivity and a universal scattering rate 1/τ=αPkBT/ℏ with a universal prefactor αP∼1 and logarithmic-in-temperature singular specific heat coefficient, so-called Planckian metal phase was observed in various overdoped high-Tc cuprate superconductors over a finite range in doping. Here, we propose a microscopic mechanism for this exotic state based on quantum-critical bosonic charge Kondo fluctuations coupled to both spinon and a heavy conduction-electron Fermi surfaces within the heavy-fermion formulation of the slave-boson t-J model. Using a controlled perturbative renormalization group (RG) analysis, we examine the competition between the pseudogap phase, characterized by Anderson's Resonating-Valence-Bond spin-liquid, and the Fermi-liquid state, characterized by the electron hoping (effective charge Kondo effect). We find a quantum-critical metallic phase with a universal Planckian ℏω/kBT scaling in scattering rate near a localized-delocalized (pseudogap-to-Fermi liquid) charge Kondo breakdown transition. Our results are in excellent agreement with the recent experimental observations on optical conductivity (without fine-tuning) in Nat. Commun. 14, 3033 (2023), universal doping-independent field-to-temperature scaling in magnetoresistance in Nature 595, 661 (2021), and the marginal Fermi-liquid spectral function observed in ARPES (Science 366, 1099 (2019)) as well as Hall coefficient in various overdoped cuprates in Nature 595, 661 (2021) and Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 10, 409 (2019). Our mechanism offers a microscopic understanding of the quantum-critical Planckian metal phase observed in cuprates d-wave superconducting, and Fermi liquid phases.
The phase diagram of hole-doped cuprate superconductors contains three central puzzles: a dome-shaped superconducting phase, a strange metal normal state with Planckian dissipation, and robust d-wave pairing (dx2-y2 symmetry). We propose a unified framework based on a single material-dependent parameter, the coherence purity p, which measures the fraction of phase-coherent condensate relative to dissipative channels. Geometric frustration of the antiferromagnetic background on the CuO2 square lattice drives p to a maximum at optimal doping. The superconducting transition temperature follows T_c proportional to p/(1-p). The d-wave symmetry is derived as the leading pairing instability under on-site repulsion and nearest-neighbor superexchange, without being assumed. In the strange metal, the Planckian dissipation coefficient alpha = hbar/(tau kB T) is linked to the purity deficit 1-p through a universal amplification factor C ≈ 31, which we derive from the nodal Dirac structure of the d-wave state. Fitting the superconducting domes of LSCO and YBCO with the peak purity p_max = 0.97 (fixed from independent transport and high-energy experiments) yields excellent agreement using only two material-dependent scale parameters. The framework produces falsifiable predictions for the doping dependence of the superfluid density and for the product of maximum T_c and the Planckian coefficient. Keywords: high-temperature superconductivity, cuprates, strange metal, Planckian dissipation, d-wave pairing, coherence purity, superconducting dome, LSCO, YBCO
The strange metallic regime across a number of high-temperature superconducting materials presents numerous challenges to the classic theory of Fermi liquid metals. Recent measurements of the dynamical charge response of strange metals, including optimally doped cuprates, have revealed a broad, featureless continuum of excitations, extending over much of the Brillouin zone. The collective density oscillations of this strange metal decay into the continuum in a manner that is at odds with the expectations of Fermi liquid theory. Inspired by these observations, we investigate the phenomenology of bosonic collective modes and the particle-hole excitations in a class of strange metals by making an analogy to the phonons of classical lattices falling apart across an unconventional jamming-like transition associated with the onset of rigidity. By making comparisons to the experimentally measured dynamical response functions, we reproduce many of the qualitative features using the above framework. We conjecture that the dynamics of electronic charge density over an intermediate range of energy scales in a class of strongly correlated metals can be at the brink of a jamming-like transition.
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