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Long-range order, bosonic fluctuations, and pseudogap in strongly correlated electron systems

Pietro M. Bonetti

Published Jan 1, 2022• 4 citations
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Abstract

This thesis deals with the Hubbard model as prototypical model to describe the physics of electrons in the two-dimensional copper-oxide planes of high-$T_c$ cuprates. To get approximate solutions, we employ functional renormalization group (fRG) and dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) methods. We deal with the problem of identifying bosonic fluctuations in the vertex function, exhibiting an intricate dependence on momenta and frequencies already at moderate coupling. In the normal, paramagnetic phase, the goal is achieved by employing the recently introduced single-boson exchange decomposition. In the symmetry-broken phases, we reformulate the previously introduced combination of fRG with mean-field theory by explicitly introducing a bosonic field. A widely discussed and challenging problem is the emergence of a pseudogap in the Hubbard model. In this thesis we assume this phase to be characterized by strong magnetic fluctuations. Following previous works, we fractionalize the electron in a chargon, carrying the electron's charge, and a charge neutral spinon, which represents local fluctuations of the spin orientation. The chargons undergo N\'eel or spiral magnetic order below a density-dependent transition temperature $T^*$. We compute DC charge transport coefficients for the chargons, and obtain a pronounced drop in the charge carrier density across the magnetic-to-paramagnetic transition. Directional fluctuations of the spin orientation are described by a non-linear sigma model and prevent long-range ordering of the electrons at any finite temperature. The phase where the chargon degrees of freedom are magnetically ordered shares many features with the pseudogap regime observed in high-$T_c$ cuprates: a strong reduction of the charge carrier density, a spin gap, Fermi arcs, and electronic nematicity.

DOI
10.18419/opus-12480

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This thesis deals with the Hubbard model as prototypical model to describe the physics of electrons in the two-dimensional copper-oxide planes of high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates. To get approximate solutions, we employ functional renormalization group (fRG) and dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) methods. We deal with the problem of identifying bosonic fluctuations in the vertex function, exhibiting an intricate dependence on momenta and frequencies already at moderate coupling. In the normal, paramagnetic phase, the goal is achieved by employing the recently introduced single-boson exchange decomposition. In the symmetry-broken phases, we reformulate the previously introduced combination of fRG with mean-field theory by explicitly introducing a bosonic field. A widely discussed and challenging problem is the emergence of a pseudogap in the Hubbard model. In this thesis we assume this phase to be characterized by strong magnetic fluctuations. Following previous works, we fractionalize the electron in a chargon, carrying the electron's charge, and a charge neutral spinon, which represents local fluctuations of the spin orientation. The chargons undergo N'eel or spiral magnetic order below a density-dependent transition temperature T∗T^*T∗. We compute DC charge transport coefficients for the chargons, and obtain a pronounced drop in the charge carrier density across the magnetic-to-paramagnetic transition. Directional fluctuations of the spin orientation are described by a non-linear sigma model and prevent long-range ordering of the electrons at any finite temperature. The phase where the chargon degrees of freedom are magnetically ordered shares many features with the pseudogap regime observed in high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates: a strong reduction of the charge carrier density, a spin gap, Fermi arcs, and electronic nematicity.
This thesis deals with the Hubbard model as prototypical model to describe the physics of electrons in the two-dimensional copper-oxide planes of high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates. To get approximate solutions, we employ functional renormalization group (fRG) and dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) methods. We deal with the problem of identifying bosonic fluctuations in the vertex function, exhibiting an intricate dependence on momenta and frequencies already at moderate coupling. In the normal, paramagnetic phase, the goal is achieved by employing the recently introduced single-boson exchange decomposition. In the symmetry-broken phases, we reformulate the previously introduced combination of fRG with mean-field theory by explicitly introducing a bosonic field. A widely discussed and challenging problem is the emergence of a pseudogap in the Hubbard model. In this thesis we assume this phase to be characterized by strong magnetic fluctuations. Following previous works, we fractionalize the electron in a chargon, carrying the electron's charge, and a charge neutral spinon, which represents local fluctuations of the spin orientation. The chargons undergo Néel or spiral magnetic order below a density-dependent transition temperature T∗T^*T∗. We compute DC charge transport coefficients for the chargons, and obtain a pronounced drop in the charge carrier density across the magnetic-to-paramagnetic transition. Directional fluctuations of the spin orientation are described by a non-linear sigma model and prevent long-range ordering of the electrons at any finite temperature. The phase where the chargon degrees of freedom are magnetically ordered shares many features with the pseudogap regime observed in high-TcT_cTc​ cuprates: a strong reduction of the charge carrier density, a spin gap, Fermi arcs, and electronic nematicity.
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.
This thesis is devoted to the study of strongly correlated phases of quantum matter in two spatial dimensions. In presence of strong interactions, the electron can split up into separate spin and charge degrees of freedom. The diagnosis of such fractionalized excitations in recent experiments, as well as finding new probes for their detection, comprise the two major themes of this thesis.\nThe first part of the thesis, comprising chapters 2-6, discusses the relevance of fractionalization to the pseudogap phase of the underdoped high Tc cuprate superconductors. This is motivated by transport experiments that show a violation of Luttinger's theorem, possible only in the presence of topological order that can arise naturally as a consequence of fractionalization. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on phenomenological models with bosonic charge carriers and fermionic spin carriers, and investigate transport properties as well as various confinement transitions to symmetry broken phases. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 deal with a different framework of electron fractionalization, where the charge carriers are fermionic and spin carriers are bosonic. We find that these models can better explain the thermal and electrical transport properties in chapter 5. In chapters 6 and 7, we show how such models arise naturally from quantum fluctuations of antiferromagnetism, and can simultaneously intertwine the anti-nodal spectral gap with the discrete broken symmetries that are observed in the cuprates. \nThe second part of the thesis, comprising chapters 7 and 8, proposes new experimental probes to study the behavior of insulating two dimensional quantum magnets. Aided by geometric frustration and strong quantum fluctuations, they may realize a spin liquid ground state which can be extremely difficult to detect via conventional probes. Chapter 7 discusses how novel spin-transport probes from the spintronics community can be used to detect fractionalized excitations in a quantum spin liquid. Chapter 8 studies how the temperature dependent anisotropy of in-plane versus out-of-plane thermal conductivities can serve as an explicit signature of fractionalization in layered two-dimensional materials.
The pseudogap in high-TcT_cTc​ superconductors from SU(2) gauge symmetry and dynamic correlation effects
We consider the spectral properties of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, describing the electronic properties of high-TcT_cTc​ compounds, within the SU(2) gauge theory, which assumes the separation of electronic degrees of freedom into those of spinon and chargon subsystems. We use the dynamic mean-field theory (DMFT) approach to describe magnetic long-range order in the chargon subsystem while also treating spinon fluctuations on top of this state. We show that DMFT supplemented by long-wavelength magnetic fluctuations is essential for describing the asymmetry in the damping between the inner and outer regions of the hole pockets and the resulting formation of Fermi arcs in the underdoped regime, especially at low hole doping. The underlying hole pockets in the chargon subsystem can be associated with those observed in quantum oscillation measurements.
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 * .
Long-wavelength spin fluctuations prohibit antiferromagnetic long-range order at finite temperature in two dimensions. Nevertheless, the correlation length starts to grow rapidly at a crossover temperature, leading to critical slowing down and to a renormalized-classical regime over a wide range of temperature, between a fraction of the mean-field transition temperature and the zero-temperature ordered state. This leads to a single-particle pseudogap of the kind observed in electron-doped cuprates. Very few theoretical methods can claim an accurate description of this regime. The challenge is that in this regime Fermi-liquid quasiparticles are already destroyed and new quasiparticles of the ordered state are not fully formed yet. Here, we study this problem for the two-dimensional Hubbard model by first generalizing the two-particle self-consistent approach. Using a special algorithm, spin fluctuations are treated in the thermodynamic limit even for large correlation lengths. The effects of Kanamori-Br\"uckner screening, of classical and of quantum fluctuations are taken into account. Results are presented at half filling for the one-band Hubbard model with nearest-neighbor hopping. They agree well with available benchmark diagrammatic quantum Monte Carlo at high temperature where the pseudogap opens up. In addition to temperature-dependent spectral properties, we find quantum corrections to the zero-temperature renormalized mean-field antiferromagnetic gap. Finally, analytic continuation of the Matsubara results for spectral functions show that the pseudogap opens up at significantly higher temperature than was previously identified based on the Matsubara data only.