Stripes Disorder and Correlation lengths in doped antiferromagnets

For stripes in doped antiferromagnets, we find that the ratio of spin and charge correlation lenghts, $\xi_{s}/\xi_{c}$, provide a sharp criterion for determining the dominant form of disorder in the system. If stripes disorder is controlled by topological defects then $\xi_{s}/\xi_{c}\lesssim 1$. In contast, if stripes correlations are disordered primarily by non-topological elastic deformations (i.e., a Bragg-Glass type of disorder) then $1<\xi _{s}/\xi_{c}\lesssim 4$ is expected. Therefore, the observation of $\xi _{s}/\xi_{c}\approx 4$ in $(LaNd)_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}$ and $\xi_{s}/\xi _{c}\approx 3$ in $La_{2/3}Sr_{1/3}NiO_{4}$ invariably implies that the stripes are in a Bragg glass type state, and topological defects are much less relevant than commonly assumed. Expected spectral properties are discussed. Thus, we establish the basis for any theoretical analysis of the experimentally obsereved glassy state in these material.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Transitions from small to large Fermi momenta in a one-dimensional Kondo lattice model

We study a one-dimensional system that consists of an electron gas coupled to a spin-1/2 chain by Kondo interaction away from half-filling. We show that zero-temperature transitions between phases with "small" and "large" Fermi momenta can be continuous. Such a continuous but Fermi-momentum-changing transition arises in the presence of spin anisotropy, from a Luttinger liquid with a small Fermi momentum to a Kondo-dimer phase with a large Fermi momentum. We have also added a frustrating next-nearest-neighbor interaction in the spin chain to show the possibility of a similar Fermi-momentum-changing transition, between the Kondo phase and a spin-Peierls phase, in the spin isotropic case. This transition, however, appears to involve a region in which the two phases coexist.Comment: The updated version clarifies the definitions of small and large Fermi momenta, the role of anisotropy, and how Kondo interaction affects Luttinger liquid phase. 12 pages, 5 figure

Stripes: Why hole rich lines are antiphase domain walls?

For stripes of hole rich lines in doped antiferromagnets, we investigate the competition between anti-phase and in-phase domain wall ground state configurations. We argue that a phase transition must occure as a function of the electron/hole filling fraction of the domain wall. Due to {\em transverse} kinetic hole fluctuations, empty domain walls are always anti-phase. At arbitrary electron filling fraction ($\delta$) of the domain wall (and in particular for $\delta \approx 1/4$ as in LaNdSrCuO), it is essential to account also for the transverse magnetic interactions of the electrons and their mobility {\em along} the domain wall. We find that the transition from anti-phase to in-phase stripe domain wall occurs at a critical filling fraction $0.28<\delta_{c}<0.30$, for any value of $\frac{J}{t}<{1/3}$. We further use our model to estimate the spin-wave velocity in a stripe system. Finally, relate the results of our microscopic model to previous Landau theory approach to stripes.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Spin and charge order in the vortex lattice of the cuprates: experiment and theory

I summarize recent results, obtained with E. Demler, K. Park, A. Polkovnikov, M. Vojta, and Y. Zhang, on spin and charge correlations near a magnetic quantum phase transition in the cuprates. STM experiments on slightly overdoped BSCCO (J.E. Hoffman et al., Science 295, 466 (2002)) are consistent with the nucleation of static charge order coexisting with dynamic spin correlations around vortices, and neutron scattering experiments have measured the magnetic field dependence of static spin order in the underdoped regime in LSCO (B. Lake et al., Nature 415, 299 (2002)) and LaCuO_4+y (B. Khaykovich et al., Phys. Rev. B 66, 014528 (2002)). Our predictions provide a semi-quantitative description of these observations, with only a single parameter measuring distance from the quantum critical point changing with doping level. These results suggest that a common theory of competing spin, charge and superconducting orders provides a unified description of all the cuprates.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures; Proceedings of the Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics, Mexico City, September 2001, to be published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press; (v2) added clarifications and updated reference

Local Moments in an Interacting Environment

We discuss how local moment physics is modified by the presence of interactions in the conduction sea. Interactions in the conduction sea are shown to open up new symmetry channels for the exchange of spin with the localized moment. We illustrate this conclusion in the strong-coupling limit by carrying out a Schrieffer Wolff transformation for a local moment in an interacting electron sea, and show that these corrections become very severe in the approach to a Mott transition. As an example, we show how the Zhang Rice reduction of a two-band model is modified by these new effects.Comment: Latex file with two postscript figures. Revised version, with more fully detailed calculation

Topological Excitations of One-Dimensional Correlated Electron Systems

Properties of low-energy excitations in one-dimensional superconductors and density-wave systems are examined by the bosonization technique. In addition to the usual spin and charge quantum numbers, a new, independently measurable attribute is introduced to describe elementary, low-energy excitations. It can be defined as a number w which determines, in multiple of $\pi$, how many times the phase of the order parameter winds as an excitation is transposed from far left to far right. The winding number is zero for electrons and holes with conventional quantum numbers, but it acquires a nontrivial value w=1 for neutral spin-1/2 excitations and for spinless excitations with a unit electron charge. It may even be irrational, if the charge is irrational. Thus, these excitations are topological, and they can be viewed as composite particles made of spin or charge degrees of freedom and dressed by kinks in the order parameter.Comment: 5 pages. And we are not only splitting point

Localized charged states and phase separation near second order phase transition

Localized charged states and phase segregation are described in the framework of the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory of phase transitions. The Coulomb interactions determines the charge distribution and the characteristic length of the phase separated states. The phase separation with charge segregation becomes possible because of the large dielectric constant and the small density of extra charge in the range of charge localization. The phase diagram is calculated and the energy gain of the phase separated state is estimated. The role of the Coulomb interaction is elucidated

Relationship between incommensurability and superconductivity in Peierls distorted charge-density-wave systems

We study the pairing potential induced by fluctuations around a charge-density wave (CDW) with scattering vector Q by means of the Froehlich transformation. For general commensurability M, defined as |k+M*Q>=|k>, we find that the intraband pair scattering within the M subbands scales with M whereas the interband pair scattering becomes suppressed with increasing CDW order parameter. As a consequence superconductivity is suppressed when the Fermi energy is located between the subbands as it is usually the case for nesting induced CDW's, but due to the vertex renormalization it can be substantially enhanced when the chemical potential is shifted sufficiently inside one of the subbands. The model can help to understand the experimentally observed dependence of the superconducting transition temperature from the stripe phase incommensurability in the lanthanum cuprates.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Aging in a Two-Dimensional Ising Model with Dipolar Interactions

Aging in a two-dimensional Ising spin model with both ferromagnetic exchange and antiferromagnetic dipolar interactions is established and investigated via Monte Carlo simulations. The behaviour of the autocorrelation function $C(t,t_w)$ is analyzed for different values of the temperature, the waiting time $t_w$ and the quotient $\delta=J_0/J_d$, $J_0$ and $J_d$ being the strength of exchange and dipolar interactions respectively. Different behaviours are encountered for $C(t,t_w)$ at low temperatures as $\delta$ is varied. Our results show that, depending on the value of $\delta$, the dynamics of this non-disordered model is consistent either with a slow domain dynamics characteristic of ferromagnets or with an activated scenario, like that proposed for spin glasses.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 5 postscript figures; acknowledgment added and some grammatical corrections in caption