Dispersion Anomalies in Cuprate Superconductors

We argue that the shape of the dispersion along the nodal and antinodal directions in the cuprates can be understood as a consequence of the interaction of the electrons with collective spin excitations. In the normal state, the dispersion displays a crossover at an energy where the decay into spin fluctuations becomes relevant. In the superconducting state, the antinodal dispersion is strongly affected by the spin resonance and displays an S-shape whose magnitude scales with the resonance intensity. For nodal fermions, relevant spin excitations do not have resonance behavior, rather they are better characterized as a gapped continuum. As a consequence, the S-shape becomes a kink, and superconductivity does not affect the dispersion as strongly. Finally, we note that optical phonons typically lead to a temperature independent S-shape, in disagreement with the observed dispersion.Comment: 12 pages, 7 eps figure

Crossover and scaling in a nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquid in two dimensions

We consider two-dimensional Fermi liquids in the vicinity of a quantum transition to a phase with commensurate, antiferromagnetic long-range order. Depending upon the Fermi surface topology, mean-field spin-density-wave theory predicts two different types of such transitions, with mean-field dynamic critical exponents $z=1$ (when the Fermi surface does not cross the magnetic zone boundary, type $A$) and $z=2$ (when the Fermi surface crosses the magnetic zone boundary, type $B$). The type $A$ system only displays $z=1$ behavior at all energies and its scaling properties are similar (though not identical) to those of an insulating Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Under suitable conditions precisely stated in this paper, the type $B$ system displays a crossover from relaxational behavior at low energies to type $A$ behavior at high energies. A scaling hypothesis is proposed to describe this crossover: we postulate a universal scaling function which determines the entire, temperature-, wavevector-, and frequency-dependent, dynamic, staggered spin susceptibility in terms of 4 measurable, $T=0$, parameters (determining the distance, energy, and order parameter scales, plus one crossover parameter). The scaling function contains the full scaling behavior in all regimes for both type $A$ and $B$ systems. The crossover behavior of the uniform susceptibility and the specific heat is somewhat more complicated and is also discussed. Explicit computation of the crossover functions is carried out in a large $N$ expansion on a mean-field model. Some new results for the critical properties on the ordered side of the transition are also obtained in a spin-density wave formalism. The possible relevance of our results to the doped cuprate compounds is briefly discussed.Comment: 20 pages, REVTeX, 6 figures (uuencoded compressed PostScript file for figures is appended

NMR relaxation in half-integer antiferromagnetic spin chains

Nuclear relaxation in half-integer spin chains at low temperatures (T << J, the antiferromagnetic exchange constant) is dominated by dissipation from a gas of thermally-excited, overdamped, spinons. The universal low temperature dependence of the relaxation rates $1/T_1$ and $1/T_{2G}$ is computed.Comment: 7 pages, 1 uuencoded postscript figure appende

A Model with Propagating Spinons beyond One Dimension

For the model of frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg magnet described in A. A. Nersesyan and A. M. Tsvelik, (Phys. Rev. B{\bf 67}, 024422 (2003)) we calculate correlation functions of staggered magnetization and dimerization. The model is formulated as a collection of antiferromagnetic chains weakly coupled by a frustrated exchange interaction. The calculation done for the case of four chains demonstrates that these functions do not vanish. Since the correlation functions in question factorize into a product of correlation functions of spinon creation and annihilation operators, this constitutes a proof that spinons in this model propagate in the direction perpendicular to the chains.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev B., 8 pages, a reference adde

Pairing instabilities in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

We show that for low and moderate fillings the ground state of the two-dimensional Hubbard model with positive-U and nearest-neighbor hopping is unstable with respect to d-wave pairing with dxy symmetry of the gap wave function: Δ∼sinkxsinky. The inclusion of the next-neighbor hopping may either suppress the pairing or change the symmetry of the superconducting state

Effect of fermi surface curvature on low-energy properties of fermions with singular interactions

We discuss the effect of Fermi surface curvature on long-distance or time asymptotic behaviors of two-dimensional fermions interacting via a gapless mode described by an effective gauge-field-like propagator. By comparing the predictions based on the idea of multidimensional bosonization with those of the strong-coupling Eliashberg approach, we demonstrate that an agreement between the two requires a further extension of the former technique

Microscopic theory of weak pseudogap behavior in the underdoped cuprate superconductors I: General theory and quasiparticle properties

We derive in detail a novel solution of the spin fermion model which is valid in the quasi-static limit pi T<<omega_sf, found in the intermediate (pseudoscaling) regime of the magnetic phase diagram of cuprate superconductors, and use it to obtain results for the temperature and doping dependence of the single particle spectral density, the electron-spin fluctuation vertex function, and the low frequency dynamical spin susceptibility. The resulting strong anisotropy of the spectral density and the vertex function lead to the qualitatively different behavior of_hot_ (around k=(pi,0)) and_cold_ (around k=(pi/2,pi/2)) quasiparticles seen in ARPES experiments. We find that the broad high energy features found in ARPES measurements of the spectral density of the underdoped cuprate superconductors are determined by strong antiferromagnetic (AF) correlations and incoherent precursor effects of an SDW state, with reduced renormalized effective coupling constant. The electron spin-fluctuation vertex function, i.e. the effective interaction of low energy quasiparticles and spin degrees of freedom, is found to be strongly anisotropic and enhanced for hot quasiparticles; the corresponding charge-fluctuation vertex is considerably diminished. We thus demonstrate that, once established, strong AF correlations act to reduce substantially the effective electron-phonon coupling constant in cuprate superconductors.Comment: REVTEX with EPS figures, uses multicol.sty, epsfig,sty, psfig.st

Finite Temperature Properties of Quantum Antiferromagnets in a Uniform Magnetic Field in One and Two Dimensions

Consider a $d$-dimensional antiferromagnet with a quantum disordered ground state and a gap to bosonic excitations with non-zero spin. In a finite external magnetic field, this antiferromagnet will undergo a phase transition to a ground state with non-zero magnetization, describable as the condensation of a dilute gas of bosons. The finite temperature properties of the Bose gas in the vicinity of this transition are argued to obey a hypothesis of ZERO SCALE-FACTOR UNIVERSALITY for $d < 2$, with logarithmic violations in $d=2$. Scaling properties of various experimental observables are computed in an expansion in $\epsilon=2-d$, and exactly in $d=1$.Comment: 27 pages, REVTEX 3.0, 8 Postscript figures appended, YCTP-xyz

Neel Order and Electron Spectral Functions in the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model: a Spin-Charge Rotating Frame Approach

Using recently developed quantum SU(2)xU(1) rotor approach, that provides a self-consistent treatment of the antiferromagnetic state we have performed electronic spectral function calculations for the Hubbard model on the square lattice. The collective variables for charge and spin are isolated in the form of the space-time fluctuating U(1) phase field and rotating spin quantization axis governed by the SU(2) symmetry, respectively. As a result interacting electrons appear as composite objects consisting of bare fermions with attached U(1) and SU(2) gauge fields. This allows us to write the fermion Green's function in the space-time domain as the product CP^1 propagator resulting from the SU(2) gauge fields, U(1) phase propagator and the pseudo-fermion correlation function. As a result the problem of calculating the spectral line shapes now becomes one of performing the convolution of spin, charge and pseudo-fermion Green's functions. The collective spin and charge fluctuations are governed by the effective actions that are derived from the Hubbard model for any value of the Coulomb interaction. The emergence of a sharp peak in the electron spectral function in the antiferromagnetic state indicates the decay of the electron into separate spin and charge carrying particle excitations.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Scaling Regimes, Crossovers, and Lattice Corrections in 2D Heisenberg Antiferromagnets

We study scaling behavior in 2D, S=1/2 and S=1 Heisenberg antiferromagnets using the data on full q-dependences of the equal time structure factor and the static susceptibility, calculated through high temperature expansions. We also carry out comparisons with a model of two coupled S=1/2 planes with the interlayer coupling tuned to the T=0 critical point. We separately determine the spin-wave velocity c and mass $m=c/\xi$, in addition to the correlation length, $\xi$, and find that c is temperature dependent; only for T\alt JS, it approaches its known T=0 value $c_0$. Despite this temperature dependent spin-wave velocity, full q- and $\omega$-dependences of the dynamical susceptibility $\chi(\bf q,\omega)$ agree with the universal scaling functions computable for the $\sigma$-model, for temperatures upto $T_0 \sim 0.6c_0/a$. Detailed comparisons show that below $T_0$ the S=1 model is in the renormalized classical (RC) regime, the two plane model is in the quantum critical (QC) regime, and the S=1/2 model exhibits a RC-QC crossover, centered at T=0.55J. In particular, for the S=1/2 model above this crossover and for the two-plane model at all T, the spin-wave mass is in excellent agreement with the universal QC prediction, $m\simeq 1.04\,T$. In contrast, for the S=1/2 model below the RC-QC crossover, and for the S=1 model at all T, the behavior agrees with the known RC expression. For all models nonuniversal behavior occurs above $T\sim 0.6c_0/a$. Our results strongly support the conjecture of Chubukov and Sachdev that the S=1/2 model is close to the T=0 critical point to exhibit QC behavior.Comment: 13 pages, REVTeX with attached PostScript (see file for addl info