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arXiv:cond-mat/0210182 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Quantum critical point in the QED3 theory of underdoped high-temperature superconductors

Dominic J. Lee, Igor F. Herbut

Published May 16, 2003• 3 citations
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Abstract

We study the effect of gapless quasiparticles in a d-wave superconductor on the $T=0$ end point of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition line in underdoped high-temperature superconductors. Starting from a lattice model that has gapless fermions coupled to three-dimensional $\mathrm{XY}$ phase fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter, we propose a continuum field theory to describe the quantum phase transition between the d-wave superconductor and the spin-density-wave insulator. Without fermions, the theory reduces to the standard Higgs scalar electrodynamics (HSE), which is known to have the critical point in the inverted $\mathrm{XY}$ universality class. Extending the renormalization group calculation for the HSE to include the coupling to fermions, we find that the qualitative effect of fermions is to increase the portion of the space of coupling constants where the transition is discontinuous. The critical exponents at the stable fixed point vary continuously with the number of fermion fields N, and we estimate the correlation length exponent $(\ensuremath{\nu}=0.65)$ and the vortex field anomalous dimension $({\ensuremath{\eta}}_{\ensuremath{\Phi}}=\ensuremath{-}0.48)$ at the quantum critical point for the physical case $N=2.$ The stable critical point in the theory disappears for the number of Dirac fermions $N>{N}_{c},$ with ${N}_{c}\ensuremath{\approx}3.4$ in our approximation. We discuss the relationship between the superconducting and the chiral (SDW) transitions, and point to some interesting parallels between our theory and the Thirring model.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.67.174512

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We study the effect of gapless quasiparticles in a d-wave superconductor on the T=0T=0T=0 end point of the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition line in underdoped high-temperature superconductors. Starting from a lattice model that has gapless fermions coupled to three-dimensional XY\mathrm{XY}XY phase fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter, we propose a continuum field theory to describe the quantum phase transition between the d-wave superconductor and the spin-density-wave insulator. Without fermions, the theory reduces to the standard Higgs scalar electrodynamics (HSE), which is known to have the critical point in the inverted XY\mathrm{XY}XY universality class. Extending the renormalization group calculation for the HSE to include the coupling to fermions, we find that the qualitative effect of fermions is to increase the portion of the space of coupling constants where the transition is discontinuous. The critical exponents at the stable fixed point vary continuously with the number of fermion fields N, and we estimate the correlation length exponent (\ensuremathν=0.65)(\ensuremath{\nu}=0.65)(\ensuremathν=0.65) and the vortex field anomalous dimension (\ensuremathη\ensuremathΦ=\ensuremath−0.48)({\ensuremath{\eta}}_{\ensuremath{\Phi}}=\ensuremath{-}0.48)(\ensuremathη\ensuremathΦ​=\ensuremath−0.48) at the quantum critical point for the physical case N=2.N=2.N=2. The stable critical point in the theory disappears for the number of Dirac fermions N>Nc,N>{N}_{c},N>Nc​, with Nc\ensuremath≈3.4{N}_{c}\ensuremath{\approx}3.4Nc​\ensuremath≈3.4 in our approximation. We discuss the relationship between the superconducting and the chiral (SDW) transitions, and point to some interesting parallels between our theory and the Thirring model.
The ddd-wave high-temperature cuprate superconductor may exhibit a nematic ordering transition at zero temperature. Near the quantum critical point, the coupling between gapless nodal quasiparticles and nematic order parameter fluctuation can result in unusual behaviors, such as extreme anisotropy of fermion velocities. We study the disorder effects on the nematic quantum critical behavior and especially on the flow of fermion velocities. The disorders that couple to nodal quasiparticles are divided into three types: random mass, random gauge field, and random chemical potential. A renormalization-group analysis shows that random mass and random gauge field are both irrelevant and, thus, do not change the fixed point of extreme velocity anisotropy. However, the marginal interaction due to random chemical potential destroys this fixed point and makes the nematic phase transition unstable.
Quantum critical behaviors induced by a putative quantum phase transition are vigilantly investigated, which separates a d-wave superconducting state and d-wave superconducting+X state below the superconducting dome of the d−wave superconductors with tuning the non-thermal doping variable. Within the framework of renormalization group approach, we start with a phenomenological effective theory originated from the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson theory and practice one-loop calculations to construct a set of coupled flows of all interaction parameters. After extracting related physical information from these coupled evolutions, we address that both fermion velocities and critical temperatures exhibit critical behaviors, which are robust enough against the initial conditions due to strong quantum fluctuations. At first, the evolution of Yukawa coupling between X-state order parameter and nodal fermions in tandem with quantum fluctuations heavily renormalize fermion velocities and generally drive them into certain finite anisotropic fixed point at the lowest-energy limit, whose concrete value relies upon the very quantum phase transition. In addition, these unique properties of fermion velocities largely reshape the fate of superfluid density, giving rise to either an enhancement or a dip of critical temperature. Moreover, we find that fermion-fermion interactions bring non-ignorable quantitative corrections to quantum critical behaviors despite they are subordinate to quantum fluctuations of order parameters.
I study the effect of Coulomb interaction on superconducting order in a ddd-wave lattice superconductor at T=0T=0T=0 by considering the superconducting saddle point in the two-dimensional $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J\text{\ensuremath{-}}U$ model with a repulsion UUU. The theory of low-energy superconducting phase fluctuations around this saddle point is derived in terms of the effective hard-core bosons (representing the density of spin-up electrons and the phase of the order parameter), interacting with the fluctuating density of spin-down electrons. Whereas the saddle-point value of the superconducting gap is found to continuously increase towards half filling, the phase stiffness at T=0T=0T=0 has a maximum, and then decreases with further underdoping. Right at half filling the phase stiffness vanishes for large UUU. This argues that the pseudogap phenomenon of the type observed in cuprates is in principle possible without a development of any competing order, purely as a result of growing correlations in the superconducting state. Implications for the finite temperature superconducting transition and the effects of static disorder are discussed qualitatively.
The coupling between fermionic matter and gauge fields plays a fundamental role in our understanding of nature, while at the same time posing a challenging problem for theoretical modeling. In this situation, controlled information can be gained by combining different complementary approaches. Here, we study a confinement transition in a system of Nf{N}_{\mathrm{f}}Nf​ flavors of interacting Dirac fermions charged under a U(1) gauge field in 2+12+12+1 dimensions. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate a lattice model that exhibits a continuous transition at zero temperature between a gapless deconfined phase, described by three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics, and a gapped confined phase, in which the system develops valence-bond-solid order. We argue that the quantum critical point is in the universality class of the QED3{\mathrm{QED}}_{3}QED3​-Gross-Neveu-XY model. We study this field theory within a 1/Nf1/{N}_{\mathrm{f}}1/Nf​ expansion in fixed dimension as well as a renormalization group analysis in $4\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ space-time dimensions. The consistency between numerical and analytical results is revealed from large to intermediate flavor number.
We examine the quantum theory of the spontaneous breaking of lattice rotation symmetry in ddd-wave superconductors on the square lattice. This is described by a field theory of an Ising nematic order parameter coupled to the gapless fermionic quasiparticles. We determine the structure of the renormalization group to all orders in a 1/Nf1/{N}_{f}1/Nf​ expansion, where Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ is the number of fermion spin components. Asymptotically exact results are obtained for the quantum critical theory in which, as in the large Nf{N}_{f}Nf​ theory, the nematic order has a large anomalous dimension, and the fermion spectral functions are highly anisotropic.
In this thesis a systematic, functional matrix field theory is developed to describe both clean and disordered s-wave and d-wave superconductors and the quantum phase transitions associated with them. The thesis can be divided into three parts. The first part includes chapters 1 to 3. In chapter one a general physical introduction is given. In chapters two and three the theory is developed and used to compute the equation of state as well as the number-density susceptibility, spin-density susceptibility, the sound attenuation coefficient, and the electrical conductivity in both clean and disordered s-wave superconductors. The second part includes chapter four. In this chapter we use the theory to describe the disorder-induced metal - superconductor quantum phase transition. The key physical idea here is that in addition to the superconducting order-parameter fluctuations, there are also additional soft fermionic fluctuations that are important at the transition. We develop a local field theory for the coupled fields describing superconducting and soft fermionic fluctuations. Using simple renormalization group and scaling ideas, we exactly determine the critical behavior at this quantum phase transition. Our theory justifies previous approaches. The third part includes chapter five. In this chapter we study the analogous quantum phase transition in disordered d-wave superconductors. This theory should be related to high TcT_cTc​ superconductors. Surprisingly, we show that in both the underdoped and overdoped regions, the coupling of superconducting fluctuations to the soft disordered fermionic fluctuations is much weaker than that in the s-wave case. The net result is that the disordered quantum phase transition in this case is a strong coupling, or described by an infinite disordered fixed point, transition and cannot be described by the perturbative RG description that works so well in the s-wave case. The transition appears to be related to the one that occurs in disordered quantum antiferromagnets.