We study the low-energy effective theory for a non-Fermi-liquid state in
2+1 dimensions, where a transverse U(1) gauge field is coupled with a patch of Fermi surface with
N flavors of fermion in the large
N limit. In the low-energy limit, quantum corrections are classified according to the genus of the two-dimensional surface on which Feynman diagrams can be drawn without a crossing in a double line representation and all planar diagrams are important in the leading order. The emerging theory has the similar structure to the four-dimensional SU(N) gauge theory in the large
N limit. Because of strong quantum fluctuations caused by the abundant low-energy excitations near the Fermi surface, low-energy fermions remain strongly coupled even in the large
N limit. As a result, there are infinitely many quantum corrections that contribute to the leading frequency dependence of the Green's function of fermion on the Fermi surface. On the contrary, the boson self-energy is not modified beyond the one-loop level and the theory is stable in the large
N limit. The nonperturbative nature of the theory also shows up in correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators.
U(1) gauge theory of nonrelativistic fermions interacting via compact U(1) gauge fields in the presence of a Fermi surface appears as an effective field theory in low dimensional quantum antiferromagnetism and heavy fermion liquids. We investigate deconfinement of fermions near the Fermi surface in the effective U(1) gauge theory. Our present analysis benchmarks the recent investigation of quantum electrodynamics in two space and one time dimensions
(QED3) by [Hermele et al.Phys. Rev. B 70, 214437 (2004)]. Utilizing a renormalization group analysis, we show that the effective U(1) gauge theory with a Fermi surface has a stable charged fixed point. Remarkably, the renormalization group equation for an internal charge
e [the coupling strength between nonrelativistic fermions and U(1) gauge fields] reveals that the conductivity $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ of fermions near the Fermi surface plays the same role as the flavor number
N of massless Dirac fermions in
QED3. This leads us to the conclusion that if the conductivity of fermions is sufficiently large, instanton excitations of U(1) gauge fields can be suppressed owing to critical fluctuations of the nonrelativistic fermions at the charged fixed point. As a result a critical field theory of nonrelativistic fermions interacting via noncompact U(1) gauge fields is obtained at the charged fixed point.
A Wigner-Jordan (WJ) transformation is used to study the one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model. The advantage of using the Wigner-Jordan transformation is that it preserves all spin-commutation relations as well as the spin on-site exclusion principle. In the 1D case a nearest-neighbor covalent-bonding state of the WJ fermions is found to have a ground-state energy (-0.4351J per site) comparable with that from the Bethe-ansatz solution (-0.4431J per site), and a linear energy spectrum at low energies with velocity 1.6366J, in close agreement with the velocity obtained by Haldane for the quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with 1/
d2 interaction (1.5708J). The method used for studying the 1D model is then applied to the 2D Heisenberg model in a square lattice. The resulting state at finite temperature is the in-phase flux state, i.e., a flux state of the Wigner-Jordan spinless fermions with an in-phase fermion orbital current circulating around each elementary plaquette.The single-particle excitation spectrum, i.e., the energy dispersion of reversing orientation of a spin in the system, of the in-phase flux state is overall similar to that of spin waves, with significant difference near the edge point k=(\ensuremath{\pi},0), at which the excitation energy of the WJ fermion is zero, whereas that of the spin-wave excitation is 2J. The specific heat of the in-phase flux state predicts a correct temperature dependence over the entire temperature range, namely a
T2 dependence at low temperature, a peak near T/J=0.6, and a 1/
T2 decreasing at high temperature. It also gives excellent agreement with the specific heat calculated from numerical methods. In contrast, the spin-wave theory only correctly predicts a
T2 dependence at low temperature. The Raman spectrum of the in-phase flux state is calculated and shows significant improvement over that from spin-wave theories compared with the experimental spectrum of
La2CuO4. The exchange parameter, J, obtained from the comparison is 1060 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$, in agreement with that obtained from analyzing the neutron-scattering data.
The
U(1) Dirac spin liquid might realize an exotic phase of matter whose low-energy properties are described by quantum electrodynamics in
2+1 dimensions, where gapless modes exist but spinons and gauge fields are strongly coupled. Its existence was proposed in frustrated Heisenberg models in the presence of frustrating superexchange interactions by the (Abrikosov) fermionic representation of the spin operators [Wen, Phys. Rev. B 65, 165113 (2002)], supplemented by the Gutzwiller projection. Here, we construct charge-
Q monopole excitations in the Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice with nearest-neighbor (
J1) and next-nearest-neighbor (
J2) couplings. In the highly frustrated regime, singlet and triplet monopoles with
Q=1 become gapless in the thermodynamic limit; in addition, the energies for generic
Q agree with field-theoretical predictions, obtained for a large number of gapless fermion modes. Finally, we consider localized gauge excitations, in which magnetic $\ensuremath{\pi}$ fluxes are concentrated in the triangular plaquettes (in analogy with
Z2 visons), showing that these kinds of states do not play a relevant role at low energies. All our findings lend support to a stable
U(1) Dirac spin liquid in the ${J}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{J}_{2}$ Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice.
It is argued that in two-dimension duality connects the CP1 representation of the S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with the Schwinger model in which Dirac fermions are interact via a U(1) gauge field. Application of this duality to underdoped high-temperature superconductors suggests that the high-energy fermionic excitation at the Mott insulating parent compound turns out to be a low-lying excitation in the spin disordered regime. A picture for high-temperature superconductivity is proposed.