The U(1) slave-boson mean-field theory of the t - J model has been used by many authors as a starting point for the theoretical analysis of high - Tc cuprate superconductors. With suitable refinements, the theory can explain a lot of qualitative features of cuprates. However, the theory does not produce a correct description of the low-energy quasi-particle properties in the under-doped regime. There exist several possible schemes to resolve this difficulty, among them, one generalizes the U(1) theory to SU(2) formulation and the other introduces confinement between spinons and holons. In this thesis, we generalize the Landau transport equations of the U(1) slave-boson mean-field theory of the t - J model to the SU(2) formulation. We first generalize the SU(2) slave-boson mean-field theory to the time-dependent regime. After eliminating the boson and constraint fields exactly in the linear-response regime at zero-temperature, we obtain a set of transport equations for quasi-particles, which has a similar structure as the Landau transport equations for Fermi-liquid superconductors, with all the Landau parameters explicitly given except that besides the usual effective interaction in the particle-hole channel in Fermi-liquid theory, we find an effective interaction in the particle-particle channel, which reflects the SU(2) symmetry between particles and holes. The transport equation is SU(2) invariant at half-filling. Around q⃗ = 0, the electron density couples only to the transverse part of the external field and the quasi-particle charge is still of order x. Besides the SU(2) formulation approach, we also investigate spinon-holon confinement in the U(1) slave-boson theory. The optical and thermal conduc-tivities of U (1) slave-boson theory with confinement are calculated. For optical conductivity, we consider only the contributions from static impurities. The qualitative behavior of our results agrees with experimental results. However, to explain the experiments quantitatively, we need to study further the con-tributions from phonons. We found a phenomenological effective Hamiltonian for the quasi-particle Green's functions in the U(1) slave-boson theory with spinon-hoion confinement. Starting from this effective Hamiltonian, we exam-ine the thermal conductivity within the theory. In particular, we compare the thermal conductivity for four different situations: (i) the ordinary d-wave su-perconducting state with four Dirac Fermi points; (ii) the normal metal state with a half-pocket Fermi surface; (iii) the spinon-holon confinement supercon-ducting state with a half-pocket Fermi surface; (iv) BCS superconducting state with a half-pocket Fermi surface.
The Gaussian fluctuations in slave-boson mean-field theory of the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model are analyzed in this paper in the low-doping regime where the superconducting to normal (pseudogap phase) transition is driven by vanishing of bose-condensation amplitude. By eliminating the boson and constraint fields exactly in the linear-response regime, we show that the Gaussian theory describes an unconventional Fermi liquid superconductor where the superconducting to normal transition is a new type of phase transition characterized by a change of Landau parameter from ${F}_{1}>\ensuremath{-}1$ in the superconducting phase to ${F}_{1}=\ensuremath{-}1$ in the pseudo-gap phase, corresponding to a state with spin-charge separation. The consequences of this proposal are discussed.
This thesis studies two modern mean field theories of the t-J model for high Tc superconductors, namely the Slave-Boson Mean Field Theory and the Spinon-Dopon Mixing Mean Field Theory, from the view point of the traditional Fermi Liquid language. This study mainly focuses on whether the two mean field theories are consistent with Fermi Liquid behaviour in the underdoped regime of the superconducting and pseudogap phases of the t-J model. Historically, experimental results indicate that the superconducting phase can be well described by the conventional Fermi liquid-like quasiparticle picture; while the pseudogap phase exhibits non-trivial non-Fermi Liquid properties. This work aims at interpreting the pseudogap phase in a generalized Fermi Liquid framework and explaining why the simple quasiparticle picture works so well in the superconducting phase even in this strongly correlated superconducting system. Within the Gaussian approximation, we formally derived the Landau interaction in Fermi liquid theory, which serves as the key to classify the behaviour of the quasiparticles in different phases. It is found that the Slave-Boson Mean Field Theory describes the superconducting to the pseudogap phase transition as a transition with an interesting Landau parameter F1s changing from 1+F1s~x to 1+F1s=0, reflecting the occurrence of a quasiparticle instability. A new phase is proposed and its experimental consequences are discussed. On the other hand, we also find that the Spinon-Dopon Mixing Mean Field Theory can be understood in a conventional Fermi Liquid framework; even though quasiparticles in the theory carry larger charges. The issue of superfluid density is also clarified.
The Gaussian fluctuations in slave-boson mean-field theory of
t−J model is analyzed in this paper in the low-doping regime where the superconducting to normal (pseudo-gap phase) transition is driven by vanishing of bose-condensation amplitude. By eliminating the boson and constraint fields exactly in the linear response regime we show that the Gaussian theory describes a Fermi liquid superconductor where the superconducting to normal transition is actually a spin-charge separation transition characterized by a change of Landau parameter from
F1>−1 in the superconducting phase to
F1=−1 in the pseudo-gap phase. Consequences of this proposal are 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.
The quantization rules obtained by Le Guillou and Ragoucy in the slave particle theories of correlated systems have been applied to study the superconductivity in extended Hubbard and $t\ensuremath{-}J$ models. The quantization scheme has the virtue of treating the local constraint exactly. We compare our numerical results with those obtained in the mean-field approximation for usual slave boson technique. We also discuss the relation of the present approach with method of equation of motion for Hubbard operators. Where possible the obtained results are also compared with experimental data on high-temperature superconductors, as in these materials the essential physics is believed to depend on the presence of strong correlations.