Renormalization group theory of nematic ordering in d-wave superconductors

Abstract

We examine the quantum theory of the spontaneous breaking of lattice rotation symmetry in d-wave superconductors on the square lattice. This is described by a field theory of an Ising nematic order parameter coupled to the gapless fermionic quasiparticles. We determine the structure of the renormalization group to all orders in a 1/N_f expansion, where N_f is the number of fermion spin components. Asymptotically exact results are obtained for the quantum critical theory in which, as in the large N_f theory, the nematic order has a large anomalous dimension, and the fermion spectral functions are highly anisotropic.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure