The foot, the fan, and the cuprate phase diagram: Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Sachdev, Subir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sachdev, Subir
author_facet Sachdev, Subir
contents A Fermi liquid with a 'large' Fermi surface (FL) can have a quantum phase transition to a spin density wave state (SDW) with reconstructed 'small' Fermi pockets. Both FL and SDW phases obey the Luttinger constraints on the volume enclosed by the Fermi surfaces. Critical spin fluctuations lead to spin-singlet $d$-wave pairing, as observed in the cuprates. Studies of the influence of spatial disorder on the FL-SDW quantum phase transition predict an extended quantum-critical Griffiths-type phase at low temperatures on the large Fermi surface side. These computations agree with the 'foot' of strange metal transport, and recent low temperature neutron scattering observations on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. However, this theory cannot explain the higher temperature pseudogap and the 'fan' of strange metal behavior of the hole-doped cuprates. Here we need to consider underlying Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions without symmetry breaking. Then the small Fermi surface phase does not obey the Luttinger constraint, and the pseudogap metal is described by thermal fluctuations above a 'fractionalized Fermi liquid' (FL*) or a 'holon metal', with the descriptions related by a duality on a background spin liquid. The quantum critical fan is described using a field theory for an underlying FL-FL* quantum phase transition in the presence of spatial disorder. This field theory can be mapped to a form which can be analyzed using the methods of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. Such an analysis successfully models linear-in-temperature resistivity, optical conductivity and thermopower observations in the quantum critical fan. The confinement crossover connecting these lower and higher temperature descriptions is also discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_16417
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The foot, the fan, and the cuprate phase diagram: Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions
Sachdev, Subir
Strongly Correlated Electrons
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
A Fermi liquid with a 'large' Fermi surface (FL) can have a quantum phase transition to a spin density wave state (SDW) with reconstructed 'small' Fermi pockets. Both FL and SDW phases obey the Luttinger constraints on the volume enclosed by the Fermi surfaces. Critical spin fluctuations lead to spin-singlet $d$-wave pairing, as observed in the cuprates. Studies of the influence of spatial disorder on the FL-SDW quantum phase transition predict an extended quantum-critical Griffiths-type phase at low temperatures on the large Fermi surface side. These computations agree with the 'foot' of strange metal transport, and recent low temperature neutron scattering observations on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. However, this theory cannot explain the higher temperature pseudogap and the 'fan' of strange metal behavior of the hole-doped cuprates. Here we need to consider underlying Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions without symmetry breaking. Then the small Fermi surface phase does not obey the Luttinger constraint, and the pseudogap metal is described by thermal fluctuations above a 'fractionalized Fermi liquid' (FL*) or a 'holon metal', with the descriptions related by a duality on a background spin liquid. The quantum critical fan is described using a field theory for an underlying FL-FL* quantum phase transition in the presence of spatial disorder. This field theory can be mapped to a form which can be analyzed using the methods of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. Such an analysis successfully models linear-in-temperature resistivity, optical conductivity and thermopower observations in the quantum critical fan. The confinement crossover connecting these lower and higher temperature descriptions is also discussed.
title The foot, the fan, and the cuprate phase diagram: Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.16417