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arXiv:cond-mat/9507040 · International Journal of Modern Physics B

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF METALS FROM A RENORMALIZATION GROUP STANDPOINT

CHETAN NAYAK, Frank A. Wilczek

Published Mar 30, 1996• 3 citations
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Abstract

We derive the equilibrium and transport properties of metals using renormalization group equations and finite-size scaling. Particular attention is given to the well-known cases of Fermi and Luttinger liquids. An important subtlety is that the temperature dependence of many transport coefficients is determined by "dangerous" irrelevant operators. We also characterize violations of Fermi or Luttinger liquid behavior in terms of indices, analogous to the critical indices describing phase transitions. We briefly consider the normal-state properties of the cuprates from this standpoint.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979296000350

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•Jan 1, 1994•70 citations
We derive the equilibrium and transport properties of metals using renormalization group equations and finite-size scaling. Particular attention is given to the well-known cases of Fermi and Luttinger liquids. An important subtlety is that the temperature dependence of many transport coefficients is determined by "dangerous" irrelevant operators. We also characterize violations of Fermi or Luttinger liquid behavior in terms of indices, analogous to the critical indices describing phase transitions. We briefly consider the normal-state properties of the cuprates from this standpoint.
We derive the equilibrium and transport properties of metals using renormalization group equations and finite-size scaling. Particular attention is given to the well-known cases of Fermi and Luttinger liquids. An important subtlety is that the temperature dependence of many transport coefficients is determined by “dangerous” irrelevant operators. We also characterize violations of Fermi or Luttinger liquid behavior in terms of indices, analogous to the critical indices describing phase transitions. We briefly consider the normal-state properties of the cuprates from this standpoint. 2
With particular reference to the role of the renormalization group (RG) approach and Ward identities (WI's), we start by recalling some old features of the one-dimensional Luttinger liquid as the prototype of non-Fermi-liquid behavior. Its dimensional crossover to the Landau normal Fermi liquid implies that a non-Fermi liquid, as, e.g., the normal phase of the cuprate high temperature superconductors, can be maintained in d>1 only in the presence of a sufficiently singular effective interaction among the charge carriers. This is the case when, nearby an instability, the interaction is mediated by critical fluctuations. We are then led to introduce the specific case of superconductivity in cuprates as an example of avoided quantum criticality. We will disentangle the fluctuations which act as mediators of singular electron–electron interaction, enlightening the possible order competing with superconductivity and a mechanism for the non-Fermi-liquid behavior of the metallic phase. This paper is not meant to be a comprehensive review. Many important contributions will not be considered. We will also avoid using extensive technicalities and making full calculations for which we refer to the original papers and to the many good available reviews. We will here only follow one line of reasoning which guided our research activity in this field.
With particular reference to the role of the renormalization group (RG) approach and Ward identities (WI's), we start by recalling some old features of the one-dimensional Luttinger liquid as the prototype of non-Fermi-liquid behavior. Its dimensional crossover to the Landau normal Fermi liquid implies that a non-Fermi liquid, as, e.g., the normal phase of the cuprate high temperature superconductors, can be maintained in d>1 only in the presence of a sufficiently singular effective interaction among the charge carriers. This is the case when, nearby an instability, the interaction is mediated by critical fluctuations. We are then led to introduce the specific case of superconductivity in cuprates as an example of avoided quantum criticality. We will disentangle the fluctuations which act as mediators of singular electron–electron interaction, enlightening the possible order competing with superconductivity and a mechanism for the non-Fermi-liquid behavior of the metallic phase. This paper is not meant to be a comprehensive review. Many important contributions will not be considered. We will also avoid using extensive technicalities and making full calculations for which we refer to the original papers and to the many good available reviews. We will here only follow one line of reasoning which guided our research activity in this field.
The low-energy properties of interacting Fermi systems are highly constrained by conservation laws. They generally simplify the structure of the underlying renormalization group by reducing the number of independent renormalization constants. In one dimension, all properties of normal metallic fixed points are uniquely determined by separate charge and spin conservation for states near the left and right Fermi points, respectively. We construct the general Luttinger-liquid theory of one-dimensional (1D) metals directly from these conservation laws. Luttinger-liquid parameters emerge naturally from the velocities associated with the conserved currents at the Luttinger-liquid fixed point. Instead of bosonization, one may thus use techniques familiar from Fermi-liquid theory, i.e., Feynman diagrams, equations of motion, and Ward identities. The choice of a technique comprising both Fermi- and Luttinger-liquid theory makes the similarities and differences of both theories particularly transparent, and sets the stage for constructing non-Fermi-liquid metallic fixed points in d>1. Several generic properties and asymptotic conservation laws of 2D non-Fermi-liquid metals are discussed.
We compare two fermionic renormalization group (RG) methods which have been used to investigate the electronic transport properties of one-dimensional metals with two-particle interaction (Luttinger liquids) and local inhomogeneities. The first one is a poor man's method set-up to resum 'leading-log' divergences of the effective transmission at the Fermi momentum. Generically the resulting equations can be solved analytically. The second approach is based on the functional RG (fRG) method and leads to a set of differential equations which can only for certain set-ups and in limiting cases be solved analytically, while in general it must be integrated numerically. Both methods are claimed to be applicable for inhomogeneities of arbitrary strength and to capture effects of the two-particle interaction, such as interaction dependent exponents, up to leading order. We critically review this for the simplest case of a single impurity. While on first glance the poor man's approach seems to describe the crossover from the 'perfect' to the 'open chain fixed point' we collect evidence that difficulties may arise close to the 'perfect chain fixed point'. Due to a subtle relation between the scaling dimensions of the two fixed points this becomes apparent only in a detailed analysis. In the fRG method the coupling of the different scattering channels is kept which leads to a better description of the underlying physics.
We expand upon on an earlier renormalization group analysis of a non-Fermi liquid fixed point that plausibly govers the two dimensional electron liquid in a magnetic field near filling fraction ν = 1/2. We give a more complete description of our somewhat unorthodox renormalization group transformation by relating both our field-theoretic approach to a direct mode elimination and our anisotropic scaling to the general problem of incorporating curvature of the Fermi surface. We derive physical consequences of the fixed point by showing how they follow from renormalization group equations for finite-size scaling, where the size may be set by the temperature or by the frequency of interest. In order fully to exploit this approach, it is necessary to take into account composite operators, including in some cases dangerous “irrelevant ” operators. We devote special attention to gauge invariance, both as a formal requirement and in its positive role providing Ward identities constraining the renormalization of composite operators. We emphasize that new considerations arise in describing properties of the physical electrons (as opposed to the quasiparticles.) We propose an experiment which, if feasible, will allow the most characteristic feature of our results, that is the divergence of the effective mass of the quasiparticle near the nominal Fermi surface, to be tested directly. Some comparison with other recent, related work is attempted. 2