Inhomogeneous superconducting phases in the frustrated Kondo-Heisenberg chain

We use bosonization and renormalization group methods to determine the ground state phase diagram of a one-dimensional frustrated Kondo-Heisenberg system consisting of a one-dimensional spin-1/2 Luttinger liquid coupled by a Kondo exchange interaction $J_K$ to a frustrated quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain, with a nearest-neighbor exchange coupling $J_1$ and a next-nearest-neighbor (frustrating) exchange interaction $J_2$. We analyze the interplay of quantum frustration in the antiferromagnetic chain with the Kondo exchange coupling $J_K$ with the Luttinger liquid. We discuss the structure of the phase diagram of this system as a function of the ratios $J_K/J_1$, $J_2/J_1$ and of the parameters of the Luttinger liquid. In particular we discuss in detail the regimes in which a pair-density-wave state may be realized and its relation with the spin correlations in the frustrated antiferromagnetic chain.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, 39 references; v2 with a new paragraph. Published versio

Local density of states of 1D Mott insulators and CDW states with a boundary

We determine the local density of states (LDOS) of one-dimensional incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) states in the presence of a strong impurity potential, which is modeled by a boundary. We find that the CDW gets pinned at the impurity, which results in a singularity in the Fourier transform of the LDOS at momentum 2k_F. At energies above the spin gap we observe dispersing features associated with the spin and charge degrees of freedom respectively. In the presence of an impurity magnetic field we observe the formation of a bound state localized at the impurity. All of our results carry over to the case of one dimensional Mott insulators by exchanging the roles of spin and charge degrees of freedom. We discuss the implications of our result for scanning tunneling microscopy experiments on spin-gap systems such as two-leg ladder cuprates and 1D Mott insulators

Quantum Criticality of Semi-Dirac Fermions in 2+1 Dimensions

Two-dimensional semi-Dirac fermions are quasiparticles that disperse linearly in one direction and quadratically in the other. We investigate instabilities of semi-Dirac fermions towards charge, spin-density wave and superconducting orders, driven by short-range interactions. We analyze the critical behavior of the Yukawa theories for the different order parameters using Wilson momentum shell RG. We generalize to a large number $N_f$ of fermion flavors to achieve analytic control in 2+1 dimensions and calculate critical exponents at one-loop order, systematically including $1/N_f$ corrections. The latter depend on the specific form of the bosonic infrared propagator in 2+1 dimensions, which needs to be included to regularize divergencies. The $1/N_f$ corrections are surprisingly small, suggesting that the expansion is well controlled in the physical dimension. The order-parameter correlations inherit the electronic anisotropy of the semi-Dirac fermions, leading to correlation lengths that diverge along the spatial directions with distinct exponents, even at the mean-field level. We conjecture that the proximity to the critical point may stabilize novel modulated order phases.Comment: 10, pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Charge-Density-Wave and Superconductor Competition in Stripe Phases of High Temperature Superconductors

We discuss the problem of competition between a superconducting (SC) ordered state with a charge density wave (CDW) state in stripe phases of high $T_c$ superconductors. We consider an effective model for each stripe motivated by studies of spin-gapped electronic ladder systems. We analyze the problem of dimensional crossover arising from inter-stripe SC and CDW couplings using non-Abelian bosonization and renormalization group (RG) arguments to derive an effective $O(4)$-symmetric nonlinear $\sigma$-model in $D=2+1$ for the case of when both inter-stripe couplings are of equal magnitude as well as equally RG relevant. By studying the effects of various symmetry lowering perturbations, we determine the structure of the phase diagram and show that, in general, it has a broad regime in which both orders coexist. The quantum and thermal critical behavior is discussed in detail, and the phase coexistence region is found to end at associated $T=0$ as well as $T>0$ tetracritical points. The possible role of hedgehog topological excitations of the theory is considered and argued to be RG irrelevant at the spatially anisotropic higher dimensional low-energy fixed point theory. Our results are also relevant to the case of competing N\'eel and valence bond solid (VBS) orders in quantum magnets on 2D isotropic square as well as rectangular lattices interacting via nearest neighbor Heisenberg exchange interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures (one with 3 subfigures

Boundary effects on the local density of states of one-dimensional Mott insulators and charge density wave states

We determine the local density of states (LDOS) for spin-gapped one-dimensional charge density wave (CDW) states and Mott insulators in the presence of a hard-wall boundary. We calculate the boundary contribution to the single-particle Green function in the low-energy limit using field theory techniques and analyze it in terms of its Fourier transform in both time and space. The boundary LDOS in the CDW case exhibits a singularity at momentum 2kF, which is indicative of the pinning of the CDW order at the impurity. We further observe several dispersing features at frequencies above the spin gap, which provide a characteristic signature of spin-charge separation. This demonstrates that the boundary LDOS can be used to infer properties of the underlying bulk system. In presence of a boundary magnetic field mid-gap states localized at the boundary emerge. We investigate the signature of such bound states in the LDOS. We discuss implications of our results on STM experiments on quasi-1D systems such as two-leg ladder materials like Sr14Cu24O41. By exchanging the roles of charge and spin sectors, all our results directly carry over to the case of one-dimensional Mott insulators.Comment: 28 page

Coupled one dimensional electron systems and stripe phases of high temperature superconductors

In this dissertation, I will consider the problem of coupled one dimensional electronic systems particularly in connection with the stripe phases of high temperature superconductors. Three major problems have been addressed in this dissertation. In chapter one, I consider the problem of the Local Density of States for spin-gapped one-dimensional charge density wave (CDW) states and Mott insulators in the presence of a hard-wall boundary. I calculate the boundary contribution to the single-particle Green function in the low-energy limit using field theory techniques and analyze it in terms of its Fourier transform in both time and space. The boundary LDOS in the CDW case exhibits a singularity at momentum $2k_\mathrm{F}$, which is indicative of the pinning of the CDW order at the impurity. Several dispersing features has been observed at frequencies above the spin gap, which provide a characteristic signature of spin-charge separation. This demonstrates that the boundary LDOS can be used to infer properties of the underlying ``bulk' system. In the presence of a boundary magnetic field mid-gap states localized at the boundary emerge with signature in the LDOS. I discuss implications of these results for STM experiments on quasi-1D systems such as two-leg ladder materials like Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$. By exchanging the roles of charge and spin sectors, all our results directly carry over to the case of one-dimensional Mott insulators. In the second chapter, I study an extended Hubbard-Heisenberg model on two types of two leg ladders, a model without flux and a model with flux $\pi$ per plaquette. In the case of the conventional (flux-less) ladder the Pair density wave state arises for certain filling fractions when commensurability conditions is satisfied. For the flux $\pi$ ladder the pair density wave phase is generally present. The PDW phase is characterized by a finite spin gap and a superconducting order parameter with a finite (commensurate in this case) wave vector and power-law superconducting correlations. In this phase the uniform superconducting order parameter, the $2k_F$ charge-density-wave (CDW) order parameter and the spin-density-wave N\'eel order parameter exhibit short range (exponentially decaying) correlations. In particular the PDW phase appears even at weak coupling when the bonding band of the ladder is half filled. This state is shown to be dual to a uniform superconducting (SC) phase with quasi long range order. By making use of bosonization and the renormalization group, the phase diagram of the spin-gapped regime has been determined and the quantum phase transitions therein has been discussed. The phase boundary between PDW and the uniform SC ordered phases is found to be in the Ising universality class. This analysis is generalized to the case of other commensurate fillings of the bonding band, where higher order commensurate PDW states are found. The form of the effective bosonized field theory is determined and the corresponding phase diagram is discussed. We show that the formation of PDW order in the ladder embodies the notion of intertwined orders. The last topic discussed here is the competition between a superconducting (SC) ordered state with a charge density wave (CDW) state in stripe phases of high $T_c$ superconductors. An effective model for each stripe, motivated by studies of spin-gapped electronic ladder systems, has been considered. The problem of dimensional crossover arising from inter-stripe SC and CDW couplings has been analyzed using non-Abelian bosonization and renormalization group (RG) arguments and an effective $O(4)$-symmetric nonlinear $\sigma$-model in $D=2+1$ has been derived for the case when both inter-stripe couplings are of equal magnitude as well as equally RG relevant. By studying the effects of various symmetry lowering perturbations, the structure of the phase diagram has been determined and it has been shown that, in general, it has a broad regime in which both orders coexist. The quantum and thermal critical behavior is discussed in detail, and the phase coexistence region is found to end at associated $T=0$ as well as $T>0$ tetracritical points. The possible role of hedgehog topological excitations of the theory is considered and argued to be RG irrelevant at the spatially anisotropic higher dimensional low-energy fixed point theory. These results are also relevant to the case of competing N\'eel and valence bond solid (VBS) orders in quantum magnets on 2D isotropic square as well as rectangular lattices interacting via nearest neighbor Heisenberg exchange interactions