We consider the consequences of separation of spin and charge degrees of freedom in 2+1D strongly correlated spin systems. Self-consistent spin and charge motions induced by doping in sites of ground and dual lattices form such a spectrum of quasiparticles which together with dispersionless character of the collective excitation spectrum and the chemical potential pinning in the band center yield the necessary behavior of charge and spin polarizability to support the theory of marginal liquid formulated by Varma et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1996 (1989)].
We consider the consequences of separation of spin and charge degrees of freedom in 2+1D strongly correlated spin systems. Self-consistent spin and charge motions induced by doping in sites of ground and dual lattices form such a spectrum of quasiparticles which together with dispersionless character of the collective excitation spectrum and the chemical potential pinning in the band center yield the necessary behavior of charge and spin polarizability to support the theory of marginal liquid formulated by Varma et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1996 (1989)].
We consider the consequences of the separation of spin and charge degrees of freedom in 2 + 1 D strongly correlated spin systems. Self-consistent spin and charge motions induced by doping in sites of ground and dual lattices form such a spectrum of quasiparticles which together with the dispersionless character of the collective excitation spectrum and the chemical potential pinning in the band center yield the necessary behavior to support the theory of marginal Fermi liquid formulated by C. M. Varma et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett.63, 1996 (1989)).
The Fermi liquid theory is a central concept in modern condensed matter physics used to describe conventional metals. A state of this universality class consists of well-defined quasiparticles, which occupy a finite number of states within a Fermi volume defined in momentum space. According to the Luttinger’s theorem, such a state encloses a Fermi volume proportional to the electron density modulo the filled bands if no symmetry is broken. In the past decades strong deviations from Fermi liquid theory have been observed in the scaling behavior of thermodynamic observables in different materials, among which are for instance cuprates and iron pnictides. This thesis is about two prototypical systems that can not be described by Fermi liquid theory. The first part of this work investigates two-dimensional effective models, which are in a Mott insulating state at half-filling and have a finite conductivity when doped with holes. In such a Mott insulating state, the charge carriers are strongly localized due to the Coulomb repulsion. Hence, strong correlations are assumed to have a strong impact on the formation of the ground state, also in the regime of small hole concentration. In a first project we have used a so-called spinon dopon mean-field theory to represent the two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model with strong on-site repulsive interaction in effective degrees of freedom, in which the holes can be embedded into a quantum spin liquid. The corresponding SU(2) invariant ground state belongs to the class of fractionalized Fermi liquids. In a second project we investigate a quantum dimer model, an effective model based on a Hilbert space spanned by short range singlets and bound states of holes and spins. The focus here is on the calculation of the hole-part of the electron spectral function by using exact diagonalization and its comparison with two analytic methods, a diagrammatic computation based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation and a so-called two-mode approximation. The electron spectral function shows a similar analytic form in momentum space between nodal and antinodal point when compared to results from photoemission spectroscopy experiments on cuprates. Furthermore, in a subsequent work we calculate the exact ground state of the quantum dimer model along a certain parameter line. In order to analyze the behavior of the elctron spectral function when increasing the density of holes, we investigate the Fermi-Hubbard model in a current project using a dynamical mean-field approach. To solve the 4-site cluster impurity problem, we use a numerical renormalization group approach. However, numerical limitations force us to restrict the analysis to spin-polarized baths. According to the spectral data, the system is similar to the SU(2) invariant case at half-filling in a Mott insulating state and posseses a momentum-selective energy gap at finite doping. The topology of the Fermi surface shows a Lifshitz transition when increasing the hole concentration. Here, the curvature of the Fermi surface changes from electron- to hole-like. For comparison we apply the dynamical mean-field theory also to the quantum dimer model and observe that the electron spectral functions at finite doping are qualitatively similar to that of the two-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model. The second half of the work is about Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory, which is used to describe the low-energy effective degrees of freedom of one-dimensional systems. Here, we first discuss a conceptional extension of the operator-based bosonization theory for one-dimensional systems. This extension is especially suited for inhomogeneous one-dimensional systems. First, we investigate a one-dimensional system with a local interation potential and compute an exact solution of the single particle propagator at T = 0. The critical exponent of the single particle propagator has an unconventional form as a function of the microscopic Tomonaga-Luttinger parameters, which is not covered by the original Luttinger paradigm postulated by F. Duncan M. Haldane. In a second project on one-dimensional systems, we study the impact of scattering processes among bosonic low-energy excitations on the thermalization process. Such scattering processes are irrelevant on large length scales, however strongly affect the dynamics. In our analytic analysis we focus on a experimental setup, where a one-dimensional Bose gas is instantaneously splitted in two identical, however strongly correlated, halves of one-dimensional electronic systems. In the following, the corresponding non-equilibrium state runs through multiple regimes in time, such as a metastable prethermalization regime. However, above a certain threshold in time such scattering processes cause an effective thermalization of the system. In order to demonstrate this, we compute the kinetic equation in the Keldysh field integral formalism from a diagrammatic expansion based on a self-consistent Born approximation.
New insights into the strongly correlated Fermi liquid state of the SU(N) infinite-U Hubbard and t-J models are presented in connection to the metallic state of unbroken symmetry of the copper oxide planes. The nature of single particle and collective excitations is analyzed and the Landau Fermi Liquid parameters are derived. The one-particle spectral function in the Hubbard valence band is obtained with both Hubbard and Gutzwiller-like features. A simple interpretation of the large incoherent background is given in terms of a superposition of quasiparticles and a collective mode describing the propagation of a bare hole in a large U system. The spin exchange interactions produce very low lying collective modes describing the propagation of staggered spin chirality which soften at incommensurate wavevectors. The quasiparticles are strongly scattered by the low lying chirality fluctuations resulting in deviations from canonical Fermi liquid behavior at low energy scales. Of the same origin, the quasiparticle self energy is found to be strongly k-dependent. It leads to corrections to the dispersion and enhancement of the quasiparticle lifetime in the hole-like region of the interacting Fermi surface. The combined effects are sufficient to produce a sign change in the Hall coefficient evaluated for parameters relevant to the copper oxide planes. We show that these models also exhibit a zero temperature fluctuation driven transition from Fermi liquid to non Fermi liquid phase without the onset of magnetic ordering below a critical doping δc=1/4N, whereby providing a microscopic mechanism for the destruction of the Fermi liquid coherence by strong longitudinal gauge fluctuations which represent the effects of the infinite-U constraint.
Marginal Fermi liquid was originally introduced as a phenomenological description of the cuprates in a part of the metallic doping range which appears to be governed by fluctuations due to a quantum-critical point. An essential result due to the form of the assumed fluctuation spectra is that the large inelastic quasiparticle relaxation rate near the Fermi surface is proportional to the energy measured from the chemical potential, ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{i}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$. We present a microscopic long-wavelength derivation of the hydrodynamic properties in such a situation by an extension of the procedure that Eliashberg used for the derivation of the hydrodynamic properties of a Landau-Fermi liquid. In particular, the density-density and the current-current correlations and the relation between the two are derived, and the connection to microscopic calculations of the frequency dependence of the optical conductivity with an additional Fermi-liquid correction factor shown to follow. The method used here may be necessary, quite generally, for the correct hydrodynamic theory for any problem of quantum-critical fluctuations in fermions.
In contrast to the well-known Fermi-liquid theory of three dimensions, interacting one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional systems of fermions are described at low energy by an effective theory known as Luttinger liquid theory. This theory is expressed in terms of collective many-body excitations that show exotic behavior such as spin-charge separation. Luttinger liquid theory is commonly applied on the premise that ``low energy'' describes both the spin and charge sectors. However, when the interactions in the system are very strong, as they typically are at low particle densities, the ratio of spin to charge energy may become exponentially small. It is then possible at very low temperatures for the single-spin excitation energy to be low compared to the characteristic single excitation charge energy, but still high compared to the characteristic spin energy. This energy window of near ground-state charge degrees of freedom but highly thermally excited spin degrees of freedom is called a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid. The spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid exhibits a higher degree of universality than the Luttinger liquid and its properties are qualitatively distinct. In this Colloquium some recent theoretical developments in the field are detailed and experimental indications of such a regime in gated semiconductor quantum wires are described.
Low-temperature properties of 3D interacting fermion systems are well described by Landau's theory of Fermi liquids; for reviews see, e.g. [183, 184]. It involves only excitations of the system around the Fermi surface on energy scales small compared to the Fermi energy. Excitations are well described by quasi-particles which are in one-to-one correspondence with the bare particles. The bare-particle interaction does not break the qualitative picture of non-interacting system, but renormalizes the dynamical characteristics (the effective mass and the pair interaction) of quasi-particles. Within the microscopic Green function formalism, the existence of quasi-particles is equivalent to assuming that the self-energy correction Σ( k , ω) is regular (has only short-range contributions in time and space) close to the Fermi surface. The lifetime of quasi-particles τ α(ε k −ε F ) −2 is long enough to consider them as well-defined eigenstates over long time-scales. The momentum occupation number of the bare particles exhibits a sharp discontinuity when crossing the Fermi momentum. The charge and spin degrees of freedom of quasi-particle always travel together. The Landau theory breaks down in 1D systems of interacting fermions which have a very specific Fermi surface consisting of two points ± k F . In such systems, the self-energy Σ( k , ω) no longer possesses the analytic properties required for introducing quasi-particles. In contrast to Fermi liquids, the momentum occupation number of the bare particles in the ground state is continuous at the Fermi momentum. Moreover, the charge and spin excitations are separated.