Optical-conductivity sum rule in cuprates and unconventional charge density waves: a short review

Abstract

We begin with an overview of the experimental results for the temperature and doping dependences of the optical-conductivity spectral weight in cuprate superconductors across the whole phase diagram. Then we discuss recent attempts to explain the observed behavior of the spectral weight using reduced and full models with unconventional $d_{x^2-y^2}$ charge-density waves.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX4, 4 EPS figures; Invited paper for a special issue of Low Temperature Physics dedicated to the 20th anniversary of HTS