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arXiv:2511.03436 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Fractionalized superconductivity and spin stiffnesses in the SU(2) gauge theory of the two-dimensional Hubbard model

Demetrio Vilardi, Pietro M. Bonetti

Published Jun 2, 2026• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the SU(2) gauge theory for spin fluctuations in the two-dimensional Hubbard model, where the electron field is fractionalized in terms of spinons and chargons. In this theory, spinons are described by a nonlinear sigma model, while chargons are treated as fermions at a mean-field level. We investigate the instability to a superconducting state (SC*), arising from a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) where pairing between chargons occurs. Consistent with previous studies, our analysis reveals a coexisting phase characterized by both magnetic and superconducting order for the chargons. The central contribution of this work is the calculation of the feedback of superconductivity on spatial and temporal spin stiffnesses, thereby quantifying its impact on spin fluctuations. Our key finding is that superconductivity significantly suppresses these spin stiffnesses, enhancing quantum spin fluctuations. This enhancement suggests that superconductivity can play a crucial role in stabilizing quantum disorder against long-range magnetic ordering.

DOI
10.1103/xcm5-c81y

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We consider the SU(2) gauge theory for spin fluctuations in the two-dimensional Hubbard model, where the electron field is fractionalized in terms of spinons and chargons. In this theory, spinons are described by a nonlinear sigma model, while chargons are treated as fermions at a mean-field level. We investigate the instability to a superconducting state (SC*), arising from a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) where pairing between chargons occurs. Consistent with previous studies, our analysis reveals a coexisting phase characterized by both magnetic and superconducting order for the chargons. The central contribution of this work is the calculation of the feedback of superconductivity on spatial and temporal spin stiffnesses, thereby quantifying its impact on spin fluctuations. Our key finding is that superconductivity significantly suppresses these spin stiffnesses, enhancing quantum spin fluctuations. This enhancement suggests that superconductivity can play a crucial role in stabilizing quantum disorder against long-range magnetic ordering.
We present a SU(2) gauge theory of fluctuating magnetic order in the two-dimensional Hubbard model. The theory is based on a fractionalization of electrons in fermionic chargons and bosonic spinons. The chargons undergo N\'eel or spiral magnetic order below a density-dependent transition temperature T∗{T}^{*}T∗. Fluctuations of the spin orientation are described by a nonlinear sigma model obtained from a gradient expansion of the spinon action. The spin stiffnesses are computed from a renormalization group improved random phase approximation. Our approximations are designed for moderate, not for strong, Hubbard interactions. The stiffnesses are strongly doping dependent with discontinuities at half-filling and a pronounced electron-hole asymmetry. The spinon fluctuations prevent magnetic long-range order of the electrons at any finite temperature. The phase with magnetic chargon order shares characteristic features with the pseudogap regime in high-Tc{T}_{c}Tc​ cuprates: a strong reduction of charge carrier density, a spin gap, and Fermi arcs. A substantial fraction of the pseudogap regime exhibits electronic nematicity.
We present an SU(2) gauge theory of fluctuating stripe order in the two-dimensional Hubbard model. The theory is based on a fractionalization of the electron operators in fermionic chargons with a pseudospin degree of freedom, and charge-neutral spinons capturing fluctuations of the spin orientation. The chargons are treated in a renormalized mean-field theory. We focus on regions of the phase diagram where they undergo stripe order. The spinons are described by a nonlinear sigma model with pseudospin stiffnesses determined by the chargons. They prevent breaking of the physical SU(2) spin symmetry at any finite temperature, resulting in a charge-ordered pseudogap phase with a reconstructed Fermi surface and a spin gap. The spectral function for single-particle excitations exhibits a collection of Fermi arcs and other structures. The arcs appear in various regions of the Brillouin zone, but never exclusively near the Brillouin zone diagonals. For a suitable choice of the bare dispersion relation, the form of the low energy spectral function resembles experimental observations from angular resolved photoemission on cuprates in which stripe fluctuations play an important role.
We compute the electron spin susceptibility in the pseudogap regime of the two-dimensional Hubbard model in the framework of a SU(2) gauge theory of fluctuating magnetic order. The electrons are fractionalized in fermionic chargons with a pseudospin degree of freedom and bosonic spinons. The chargons are treated in a renormalized mean-field theory and order in a Néel or spiral magnetic state in a broad range around half filling below a transition temperature T * . Fluctuations of the spin orientation are captured by the spinons. Their dynamics is governed by a nonlinear sigma model, with spin stiffnesses computed microscopically from the pseudospin susceptibility of the chargons. The SU(2) gauge group is higgsed in the chargon sector, and the spinon fluctuations prevent breaking of the physical spin symmetry at any finite temperature. The electron spin susceptibility obtained from the gauge theory shares many features with experimental observations in the pseudogap regime of cuprate superconductors: the dynamical spin susceptibility S ( q , ω ) has a spin gap, the static uniform spin susceptibility κ s decreases strongly with temperature below T * , and the NMR relaxation rate T 1 − 1 vanishes exponentially in the low temperature limit if the ground state is quantum disordered. At low hole doping, S ( q , ω ) exhibits nematicity below a transition temperature T nem < T * , and at larger hole doping in the entire pseudogap regime below T * .
We study the electron spectral function of various zero-temperature spin-charge separated phases in two dimensions. In these phases, the electron is not a fundamental excitation of the system, but rather ``decays'' into a spin-1/2 chargeless fermion (the spinon) and a spinless charge e boson (the chargon). Using low-energy effective theories for the spinons (d-wave pairing plus possible N\'eel order) and the chargons (condensed or quantum-disordered bosons), we explore three phases of possible relevance to the cuprate superconductors: (1) AF∗,{\mathrm{AF}}^{*},AF∗, a fractionalized antiferromagnet where the spinons are paired into a state with long-ranged N\'eel order and the chargons are 1/2-filled and (Mott) insulating; (2) the nodal liquid, a fractionalized insulator where the spinons are d-wave paired and the chargons are uncondensed; and (3) the d-wave superconductor, where the chargons are condensed and the spinons retain a d-wave gap. Working within the Z2{Z}_{2}Z2​ gauge theory of such fractionalized phases, our results should be valid at scales below the energy gap of the vison---the basic vortex excitation in the theory. However, on a phenomenological level, our results should apply to any spin-charge separated system where the excitations have these low-energy effective forms. Comparison with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data in the undoped, pseudogapped, and superconducting regions is made.
We propose one possible mechanism for an anomalous metallic phase appearing frequently in two spatial dimensions, that is, local pairing fluctuations. Introducing a pair-rotor representation to decompose bare electrons into collective pairing excitations and renormalized electrons, we derive an SU(2) gauge theory of the Hubbard model as an extended version of its U(1) gauge theory. Since our effective SU(2) gauge theory admits two kinds of collective bosons corresponding to pair excitations and density fluctuations, respectively, an intermediate phase appears naturally between the spin liquid Mott insulator and Fermi liquid metal of the U(1) gauge theory, characterized by softening of density-fluctuation modes as the Fermi liquid, but gapping of pair-excitation modes. We show that this intermediate phase is identified with an anomalous metallic phase because there are no electronlike quasiparticles although it is metallic.
We discuss the appearance of quantum orders in the Hubbard model for interacting electrons, at half-filling. Such phases do not have local order parameters and need to be characterized by the quantum mechanical properties of their ground state. On one hand, we study the Mott transition from a metal to a spin liquid insulator in two dimensions, of potential relevance to some layered organic compounds. The correlation-driven transition occurs at fixed filling and involves fractionalization of the electron: upon entering the insulator, a Fermi surface of neutral spinons coupled to an internal gauge field emerges. We focus on the transport properties near the quantum critical point and find that the emergent gauge fluctuations play a key role in determining the universal scaling. Second, motivated by a class of three-dimensional transition metal oxides, the pyrochlore iridates, we study the interplay of non-trivial band topology and correlations. Building on the strong spin orbit coupling in these compounds, we construct a general microscopic Hubbard model and determine its mean-field phase diagram, which contains topological insulators, Weyl semimetals, axion insulators and various antiferromagnets. We also discuss the effects many-body correlations on theses phases. We close by examining a fractionalized topological insulator that combines the two main themes of the thesis: fractionalization and non-trivial band topology. Specifically, we study how the two-dimensional protected surface states of a topological Mott insulator interact with a three-dimensional emergent gauge field. Various correlation effects on observables are identified.