Person:

Chowdhury, Debanjan

We present a phenomenological theory of the interplay between nematic order and superconductivity in the vicinity of a vortex induced by an applied magnetic field. Nematic order can be strongly enhanced in the vortex core. As a result, the vortex cores become elliptical in shape. For the case where there is weak bulk nematic order at zero magnetic field, the field-induced eccentricity of the vortex core has a slow power-law decay away from the core. Conversely, if the nematic order is field induced, then the eccentricity is confined to the vortex core. We discuss the relevance of our results to recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments on FeSe [Song et al. Science 332 1410 (2011)].

Recent neutron scattering experiments on the spin-1/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet ZnCu(_3)(OH)(6)C({12}) (Herbertsmithite) provide the first evidence of fractionalized excitations in a quantum spin liquid state in two spatial dimensions. In contrast to existing theoretical models of spin liquids, the measured dynamic structure factor reveals an excitation continuum which is remarkably at as a function of frequency and has almost no momentum dependence along several high-symmetry directions. Here we show that many experimentally observed features can be explained by the presence of topological vison excitations in a Z(_2) spin liquid. These visons form at bands on the kagome lattice, and thus act as a momentum sink for spin-carrying excitations which are probed by neutron scattering. We compute the dynamic structure factor for two di fferent Z(_2) spin liquids and find that one of them describes Herbertsmithite well above a very low energy cutoff.

We compute three-point correlators between the stress-energy tensor and the conserved currents of conformal field theories (CFTs) in 2+1 dimensions. We first compute the correlators in the large-flavor-number expansion of conformal gauge theories and then perform the computation using holography. In the holographic approach, the correlators are computed from an effective action on (3+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS4) and depend upon the coefficient γ of a four-derivative term in the action. We find a precise match between the CFT and the holographic results, thus, fixing the values of γ. The CFTs of free fermions and bosons take the values γ=1/12,−1/12, respectively, and so saturate the bound ∣∣γ∣∣≤1/12 obtained earlier from the holographic theory; the correlator of the conserved gauge flux of U(1) gauge theories takes intermediate values of γ. The value of γ also controls the frequency dependence of the conductivity and other properties of quantum critical transport at nonzero temperatures. Our results for the values of γ lead to an appealing physical interpretation of particlelike or vortexlike transport near quantum phase transitions of interest in condensed-matter physics. This paper includes Appendices reviewing key features of the AdS-CFT correspondence for condensed-matter physicists.

Many correlated materials display a quantum-critical point between a paramagnetic and a spin-density wave (SDW) state. The SDW wave vector connects points, so-called hot spots, on opposite sides of the Fermi surface. The Fermi velocities at these pairs of points are in general not parallel. Here, we consider the case where pairs of hot spots coalesce, and the wave vector (π,π) of the SDW connects hot spots with parallel Fermi velocities. Using the specific example of electron-doped cuprates, we first show that Kanamori screening and generic features of the Lindhard function make this case experimentally relevant. The temperature dependence of the correlation length, the spin susceptibility, and the self-energy at the hot spots are found using the two-particle self-consistent theory and specific numerical examples worked out for band and interaction parameters characteristic of the electron-doped cuprates. While the curvature of the Fermi surface at the hot spots leads to deviations from perfect nesting, the pseudonesting conditions lead to drastic modifications of the temperature dependence of these physical observables: Neglecting logarithmic corrections, the correlation length ξ scales like 1/T, namely, z=1 instead of the naive z=2, the (π,π) static spin susceptibility χ like 1/(\sqrt{T}), and the imaginary part of the self-energy at the hot spots like T(^{3/2}). The correction T(_1)(^{−1})∼T(^{3/2}) to the Korringa NMR relaxation rate is subdominant. We also consider this problem at zero temperature, or for frequencies larger than temperature, using a field-theoretical model of gapless collective bosonic modes (SDW fluctuations) interacting with fermions. The imaginary part of the retarded fermionic self-energy close to the hot spots scales as −ω(^{3/2})lnω. This is less singular than earlier predictions of the form −ωlnω. The difference arises from the effects of umklapp terms that were not included in previous studies.

Insulating quantum spin liquids can undergo a confinement transition to a valence bond solid via the condensation of topological excitations of the associated gauge theory. We extend the theory of such transitions to fractionalized Fermi liquids (FL*): these are metallic doped spin liquids in which the Fermi surfaces only have gauge neutral quasiparticles. Using insights from a duality transform on a doped quantum dimer model for the U(1)-FL* state, we show that projective symmetry group of the theory of the topological excitations remains unmodified, but the Fermi surfaces can lead to additional frustrating interactions. We propose a theory for the confinement transition of Z2-FL* states via the condensation of visons. A variety of confining, incommensurate density wave states are possible, including some that are similar to the incommensurate d-form factor density wave order observed in several recent experiments on the cuprate superconductors.

This thesis delves into a study of phases of strongly correlated quantum matter confined to two spatial dimensions. The thesis can broadly be divided into three parts. In the first part, comprising of chapters 2 and 3, we investigate some interesting aspects of symmetry breaking and quantum criticality in the superconducting phase of the iron-based superconductors. In particular, motivated by tunneling microscopy measurements on FeSe, in chapter 2 we study the effect of spontaneously broken rotational symmetry on the structure of the superconducting vortex. In chapter 3, we study the critical singularities associated with the superfluid-density at a wide class of symmetry-breaking and topological phase transitions in a clean superconductor. Inspired by experiments on BaFe$2$(As${1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$, we also analyze the effect of quenched disorder on the superfluid-density in the vicinity of magnetic quantum critical points.

The second part of this thesis, consisting of chapters 4 and 5, is devoted to a study of the pseudogap phase in the underdoped cuprates. In chapter 4 we study the effect of thermal fluctuations of various competing order parameters, including preformed superconductivity and short-ranged charge-density wave, on the electronic excitations. In chapter 5 we analyze the feedback of pairing fluctuations on the landscape of various competing charge-density wave order parameters within the framework of fermi-liquid theory.

In the final part of the thesis, consisting of chapters 6 and 7, we propose an alternative picture for describing the pseudogap metal. In chapter 6, we study a quantum-disordered phase of matter---the fractionalized fermi-liquid (FL*)---where the electrons are coupled to the fractionalized excitations of a strongly fluctuating antiferromagnet and propose it to be a candidate state for the pseudogap. We investigate instabilities of the FL* to density-wave order and compare with experiments. In chapter 7, we describe a framework for describing a novel quantum phase transition without any broken-symmetries---a Higgs transition---that describes a transition from a conventional fermi-liquid to a parent phase of the FL* state via an intermediate non-fermi liquid. We discuss its possible connection to the optimal doping critical point in the cuprates.

Recent experiments in the underdoped regime of the hole-doped cuprates have found evidence for an incommensurate charge density-wave state. We present an analysis of the charge ordering instabilities in a metal with antiferromagnetic correlations, where the electronic excitations are coupled to the fractionalized excitations of a quantum fluctuating antiferromagnet on the square lattice. The resulting charge density-wave state emerging out of such a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) has wave vectors of the form (±Q0,0),(0,±Q0), with a predominantly d-form factor, in agreement with experiments on a number of different families of the cuprates. In contrast, as previously shown, the charge density-wave instability of a nearly antiferromagnetic metal with a large Fermi surface, interacting via short-range interactions, has wave vectors of the type (±Q0,±Q0). Our results show that the observed charge density-wave appears as a low-energy instability of a fractionalized metallic state linked to the proximity to an antiferromagnetic insulator, and the pseudogap regime can be described by such a metal at least over intermediate length and energy scales.

We present a general theory of the singularity in the London penetration depth at symmetry-breaking and topological quantum critical points within a superconducting phase. While the critical exponents and ratios of amplitudes on the two sides of the transition are universal, an overall sign depends upon the interplay between the critical theory and the underlying Fermi surface. We determine these features for critical points to spin density wave and nematic ordering, and for a topological transition between a superconductor with ℤ2 fractionalization and a conventional superconductor. We note implications for recent measurements of the London penetration depth in BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 [K. Hashimoto et al., Science 336, 1554 (2012)].

The nature of the pseudogap regime of cuprate superconductors at low hole density remains unresolved. It has a number of seemingly distinct experimental signatures: a suppression of the paramagnetic spin susceptibility at high temperatures, low-energy electronic excitations that extend over arcs in the Brillouin zone, X-ray detection of charge-density wave order at intermediate temperatures and quantum oscillations at high magnetic fields and low temperatures. Here we show that a model of competing charge-density wave and superconducting orders provides a unified description of the intermediate and low-temperature regimes. We treat quantum oscillations at high field beyond semiclassical approximations, and find clear and robust signatures of an electron pocket compatible with existing observations; we also predict oscillations due to additional hole pockets. In the zero-field and intermediate temperature regime, we compute the electronic spectrum in the presence of thermally fluctuating charge-density and superconducting orders. Our results are compatible with experimental trends.

The last few years have seen significant experimental progress in characterizing the copper-based hole-doped high temperature superconductors in the regime of low hole density, p. Quantum oscillations, NMR, X-ray, and STM experiments have shed much light on the nature of the ordering at low temperatures. We review evidence that the order parameter in the non-Lanthanum-based cuprates is a d-form factor density-wave. This novel order acts as an unexpected window into the electronic structure of the pseudogap phase at higher temperatures in zero field: we argue in favor of a ‘fractionalized Fermi liquid’ (FL*) with 4 pockets of spin S = 1/2, charge +e fermions enclosing an area specified by p.