We propose an explanation of several experimental features related to the "pseudogap" in high Tc cuprates in terms of a spin-charge gauge theory. In this approach, based on a formal spin-charge separation applied to the t-J model, the low energy effective action describes gapful spinons (with a theoretically derived doping dependence of the gap msJ(δ| ln δ|)1/2, where δ is the doping concentration) and holons with "small" Fermi surface (∊Ftδ) interacting via a gauge field. The main effect of gauge fluctuations is to introduce a dissipation ~T/χ, where χ is the diamagnetic susceptibility. The competition between the two energy scales, ms and T/χ, is the root in our approach of many phenomena peculiar to in-plane transport properties of the "pseudogap phase". Furthermore the gauge interaction induces binding of spinon and holon into an "electron" resonance. This binding introduces another energy scale, the recombination rate, which dominates the out-of-plane resistivity, yielding an insulating behavior. A good agreement is found between the experimental data and theoretically derived doping and temperature dependence of resistivity, both in-plane and out-of-plane, and spin relaxation.
A real spin-charge separation scheme is found based on a saddle-point state of the t-J model. In the one-dimensional (1D) case, such a saddle-point reproduces the correct asymptotic correlations at the strong-coupling fixed point of the model. In the two-dimensional (2D) case, the transverse gauge field confining spinon and holon is shown to be gapped at finite doping so that a spin-charge deconfinement is obtained for its first time in 2D. The gap in the gauge fluctuation disappears at half-filling limit, where a long-range antiferromagnetic order is recovered at zero temperature and spinons become confined. The most interesting features of spin dynamics and transport are exhibited at finite doping where exotic residual couplings between spin and charge degrees of freedom lead to systematic anomalies with regard to a Fermi-liquid system. In spin dynamics, a commensurate antiferromagnetic fluctuation with a small, doping-dependent energy scale is found, which is characterized in momentum space by a Gaussian peak at (\ensuremath{\pi}/a,\ensuremath{\pi}/a) with a doping-dependent width (\ensuremath{\propto} \ensuremath{\surd}\ensuremath{\delta} , \ensuremath{\delta} is the doping concentration). This commensurate magnetic fluctuation contributes a non-Korringa behavior for the NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate. There also exists a characteristic temperature scale below thich a pseudogap behavior appears in the spin dynamics. Furthermore, an incommensurate magnetic fluctuation is also obtained at a finite energy regime. In the transport, a strong-range phase intereference leads to an effective holon Lagrangian which can give rise to a series of interesting phenomena including linear-T resistivity and a
T2 Hall angle. We discuss the striking similarities of these theoretical features with those found in the high-
Tc cuprates and give a consistent picture for the latter. Electronic properties like Fermi surface and superconducting pairing in this framework are also discussed.
We study the slave-boson $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model of cuprates with high superconducting transition temperatures, and derive its low-energy effective field theory for the charge-spin separated state in a self-consistent manner. The phase degrees of freedom of the mean field for hoppings of holons and spinons can be regarded as a U(1) gauge field,
Ai. The charge-spin separation occurs below a certain temperature,
TCSS, as a deconfinement phenomenon of the dynamics of
Ai. Below a certain temperature
TSG(<TCSS), the spin-gap phase develops as the Higgs phase of the gauge-field dynamics, and
Ai acquires a mass
mA. The effective field theory near
TSG takes the form of a Ginzburg-Landau theory of a complex scalar field $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ coupled with
Ai, where $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ represents d-wave pairings of spinons. Three dimensionality of the system is crucial to realize a phase transition at
TSG. By using this field theory, we calculate the dc resistivity $\ensuremath{\rho}.$ At
T>TSG, $\ensuremath{\rho}$ is proportional to T. At
T<TSG, it deviates downward from the T-linear behavior as $\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\propto}T{1\ensuremath{-}{c(T}_{\mathrm{SG}}\ensuremath{-}{T)}^{d}}.$ When the system is near (but not) two dimensional, due to the compactness of the phase of the field $\ensuremath{\lambda},$ the exponent d deviates from its mean-field value
1/2 and becomes a nonuniversal quantity which depends on temperature and doping. This significantly improves the comparison with the experimental data.
We outline the basic ideas involved in a recently proposed [17] derivation of a gauge theory for underdoped cuprates in the “spin gap phase”, performed essentially step by step starting from the t — J model, considered as a model Hamiltonian for the CuO2 layers. The basic tool is the U(1) x SU(2) Chern-Simons bosonization, to which it is dedicated a somewhat detailed discussion. The basic output is a “spingap” not vanishing in any direction and an antiferromagnetic correlation length proportional to the inverse square root of doping concentration, in agreement with data deduced from the neutron experiments. The model also exhibits a small half-pocket Fermi surface around (±π/2, ±π/2) and a linear in temperature dependence of in-plane resistivity in certain temperature range.
This thesis deals with different aspects of high temperature superconductivity in hole-doped cuprates. We assume the t - J model to describe the CuO2 planes of cuprates and we use a spin-charge gauge approach with spin-charge separation to describe holes in terms of a spinless fermion carrying the charge (holon) and a neutral boson carrying spin 1/2 (spinon), coupled by a slave-particle gauge field. In this framework we consider the effects of the presence of a finite density of incoherent holon pairs in the normal state as a precursor of superconductivity. We show that it is possible to take such pairs into account through a strongly direction dependent spectral weight for holons, which suppresses quasi-particles starting from the anti-nodal directions, and a wave function renormalization for the slave particle gauge field. In this way we prove that, when temperature is reduced, the formation of holon pairs causes both the deviation from linearity of the resistivity and the deviation from the constant value of the Knight shift. Moreover we point out the need for a negative next-nearest-neighbor hopping term ((t - t' - J model) to get a good continuum limit and to evaluate the Knight shift. These results are obtained through a Green's function, which follows naturally from the formalism and analytically interpolates between a Fermi liquid-like behavior and a d-wave superconductor when the coherence length of the holon pair order parameter is increased. The system preserves a finite Fermi surface until the superconducting transition, where it reduces to four nodes. Finally when, at lower temperatures, both the holon pairs and the RVB spinon pairs condense we enter the superconducting phase. In this phase we study the magnetic excitations showing how to extend to spin waves the hourglass-shape dispersion, found for spinons near the antiferromagnetic vector, if a suitable local mechanism of attraction between spinon and anti-spinon is assumed. The resulting spin wave Green's function, whose imaginary part is directly comparable with experiments, generates the hourglass with a finite gap between the two branches. Since the U(1) slave-particle gauge field gains mass in the superconducting phase via Anderson-Higgs mechanism, we propose the necessary mechanism of attraction comes from the unbroken Z2 subgroup of the U(1) gauge group.
We outline the basic ideas involved in a recently proposed derivation of a gauge theory for underdoped cuprates in the "spin-gap phase", performed essentially step by step starting from the t-J model, considered as a model Hamiltonian for the CuO_2 layers. The basic tool is the U(1)XSU(2) Chern-Simons bosonization, to which it is dedicated a somewhat detailed discussion. The basic output is a "spin-gap" not vanishing in any direction and an antiferromagnetic correlation length proportional to the inverse square root of doping concentration, in agreement with data deduced from the neutron experiments. The model also exhibits a small half-pocket Fermi surface around (π/2, π/2) and a linear in temperature dependence of in-plane resistivity in certain temperature range.
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∗. 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 cuprates: a strong reduction of charge carrier density, a spin gap, and Fermi arcs. A substantial fraction of the pseudogap regime exhibits electronic nematicity.