Recent progress in extremely correlated Fermi liquid theory (ECFL) and the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) enables us to accurately compute in the $d\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit the resistivity of the $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model after setting $J\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. This is also the $U=\ensuremath{\infty}$ Hubbard model. Since
J is set to zero, our study isolates the dynamical effects of the single occupation constraint enforced by the projection operator originally introduced by Gutzwiller. We study three densities
n=.75,.8,.85 that correspond to a range between the overdoped and optimally doped Mott insulating state. We delineate four distinct regimes separated by three crossovers, which are characterized by different behaviors of the resistivity $\ensuremath{\rho}$. We find at the lowest temperature
T a Gutzwiller correlated Fermi liquid regime with $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\propto}{T}^{2}$ extending up to an effective Fermi temperature that is dramatically suppressed from the noninteracting value by the proximity to half filling, $n\ensuremath{\sim}1$. This is followed by a Gutzwiller correlated strange metal regime with $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\propto}(T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{0})$, i.e., a linear resistivity extrapolating back to $\ensuremath{\rho}=0$ at a positive
T0. At a higher temperature scale this crosses over into the bad metal regime with $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\propto}(T+{T}_{1})$, i.e., a linear resistivity extrapolating back to a finite resistivity at
T=0 and passing through the Ioffe-Regel-Mott value where the mean free path is a few lattice constants. This regime finally gives way to the high
T metal regime, where we find $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\propto}T$, i.e., a linear resistivity extrapolating back to zero at
T=0. The present work emphasizes the first two, i.e., the two lowest temperature regimes, where the availability of an analytical ECFL theory is of help in identifying the changes in related variables entering the resistivity formula that accompanies the onset of linear resistivity, and the numerically exact DMFT helps to validate the results. We also examine thermodynamical variables such as the magnetic susceptibility, compressibility, heat capacity, and entropy and correlate changes in these with the change in resistivity. This exercise casts valuable light on the nature of charge and spin correlations in the Gutzwiller correlated strange metal regime, which has features in common with the physically relevant strange metal phase seen in strongly correlated matter.
Non-Fermi liquid (NFL) behavior and strange metallicity, often marked by resistivity linear in temperature and the breakdown of Fermi liquid quasiparticles, are recurring themes in strongly correlated quantum materials, ranging from high-temperature cuprates to twisted van der Waals heterostructures. Enormous efforts are being made to uncover the origin of NFL underlying strange metallicity, yet progress remains slow. Here, we report appearance of an NFL phase in a discontinuous metal-NFL-insulator transition of the Holstein model away from half-filling. The NFL appears as a distinct ground state of finite regime in addition to the metal and insulator states in a phase diagram, not as a consequence of quantum criticality of a continuous transition. Also, the discontinuity of the metal-NFL transition produces a mixture between the two phases along the phase boundary to exhibit a two-fluid kind strange metallicity. The dynamical mean-field theory was employed with Wilson’s numerical renormalization group in infinite dimensions. We trace the NFL phase to a spin gap opening in the absence of a charge gap. This offers an intriguing route to understanding the NFL and intertwined superconductivity in correlated quantum materials.
A strange metal state appears in many strongly correlated materials from the cuprates, pnictides, and twisted bilayer graphenes to even bosonic systems. Enormous efforts are being made to unravel the nature of the non-Fermi liquid (NFL) which underlies the strange metallicity, yet progress is rather slow. Understanding the NFL behavior is crucial, in addition to its importance in replacing the Fermi liquid paradigm, in that NFL is the normal state from which new states of matter emerge like high temperature superconductivity. Here, we report the appearance of an NFL phase in a discontinuous metal-NFL-insulator transition in a ``non-engineered'' Hamiltonian of the Holstein model away from half-filling. The discontinuity of the phase transition between NFL and Fermi liquid metal renders the ground state at the phase boundary a mixture between them over an extended range like the extended criticality observed in cuprates and other quantum materials. The dynamical mean-field theory was employed in combination with Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique. We identify the origin of the NFL metal phase as the opening of a spin gap in the absence of a charge gap. Also, strong lattice fluctuations emerge at the boundary which should enhance superconductivity.
We obtain a controlled description of a strongly correlated regime of electronic behavior. We begin by arguing that there are two ways to characterize the electronic degree of freedom, either by the canonical fermion algebra or the graded Lie algebra
su(2∣2). The first underlies the Fermi liquid description of correlated matter, and we identify a regime governed by the latter. We exploit an exceptional central extension of
su(2∣2) to employ a perturbative scheme recently developed by Shastry and obtain a series of successive approximations for the electronic Green's function. We then focus on the leading approximation, which reveals a splitting in two of the electronic dispersion. The Luttinger sum rule is violated, and a Mott metal-insulator transition is exhibited. We offer a perspective.
Experiments on strongly correlated quasi-two-dimensional electronic materials---for example, the high-temperature cuprate superconductors and the putative quantum spin liquids kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 and EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2---routinely reveal highly mysterious quantum behavior which cannot be explained in terms of weakly interacting degrees of freedom. Theoretical progress thus requires the introduction of completely new concepts and machinery beyond the traditional framework of the band theory of solids and its interacting counterpart, Landau's Fermi liquid theory. In full two dimensions, controlled and reliable analytical approaches to such problems are severely lacking, as are numerical simulations of even the simplest of model Hamiltonians due to the infamous fermionic sign problem.Here, we attempt to circumvent some of these difficulties by studying analogous problems in quasi-one dimension. In this lower dimensional setting, theoretical and numerical tractability are on much stronger footing due to the methods of bosonization and the density matrix renormalization group, respectively. Using these techniques, we attack two problems: (1) the Mott transition between a Fermi liquid metal and a quantum spin liquid as potentially directly relevant to the organic compounds kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 and EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2 and (2) non-Fermi liquid metals as strongly motivated by the strange metal phase observed in the cuprates. In both cases, we are able to realize highly exotic quantum phases as ground states of reasonable microscopic models. This lends strong credence to respective underlying slave-particle descriptions of the low-energy physics, which are inherently strongly interacting and also unconventional in comparison to weakly interacting alternatives.Finally, working in two dimensions directly, we propose a new slave-particle theory which explains in a universal way many of the intriguing experimental results of the triangular lattice organic spin liquid candidates kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 and EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2. With use of large-scale variational Monte Carlo calculations, we show that this new state has very competitive trial energy in an effective spin model thought to describe the essential features of the real materials.
The strange metal is an enigma within the field of many-body quantum physics, as it defies the standard Fermi liquid theory of metals due to the absence of well-defined, electron-like quasiparticles. It has been presumed that strange metal behavior arises due to strong correlations between electrons that are not present in ordinary Fermi liquids, but the exact nature of these correlations is unknown. To this end, this thesis aims to address the fundamental question: What, precisely, is so strongly correlated about charge in the strange metal? This question is tackled by experimentally measuring the dynamic charge response function, which directly encodes charge correlations in momentum and energy, using the technique of Momentum-resolved Electron Energy-loss Spectroscopy (M-EELS). In particular, two prototypical members of the cuprate and ruthenate strange metal families are studied: Bi-2212 and Sr
2RuO
4. By studying Bi-2212 at optimal doping, it is found that the charge response of the strange metal is characterized by a broad continuum of fluctuations that are momentum and energy independent over a large range of parameter space, unlike Fermi liquid charge correlations which exhibit propagating density waves of charge with well defined energy and momentum (i.e. plasmons). We argue that, in essence, the charge correlations of the strange metal are highly localized in both space and time, unlike the Fermi Liquid where they are localized in momentum and energy instead. To understand how charge correlations change as one leaves the strange metal regime, the M-EELS response of Bi-2212 is mapped out as a function of doping and temperature. At high temperature, it is found that the continuum is largely doping independent. However, upon cooling, very large changes in spectral weight are observed over a range of energy scales nearly two orders of magnitude larger than the thermal scale
kBT. Moreover, this change in spectral weight undergoes a sign reversal as a function of doping, with spectral weight enhancement on the underdoped side, suppression in the overdoped regime, and no change at optimal doping. These changes in spectral weight are completely unlike the case of the Fermi liquid, where doping only acts to rigidly shift the plasmon energy and no significant changes occur as a function of temperature. Finally, we venture further and ask whether strange metal and Fermi liquid charge correlations can simultaneously coexist in a material. To explore this possibility, we measured the M-EELS response of Sr
2RuO
4, a material which exhibits strange and bad metal behavior at high temperature, but transitions to a well-defined Fermi liquid at low temperature. Surprisingly, in the strange metal regime, Sr
2RuO
4 exhibits both a broad continuum similar to Bi-2212 and a propagating Fermi liquid collective mode at low-energies and momentum. Upon cooling, low-energy spectral weight is suppressed in the strange metal continuum and the Fermi liquid collective mode velocity is strongly renormalized. These findings confirm the strange metal and Fermi liquid can coexist and demonstrate that Sr
2RuO
4 exhibits charge correlations with strange metal character at high energies and short length scales and Fermi liquid character at low energies and long wavelengths.