2017/07/31 by Wei Wu, Mathias S. Scheurer, Shubhayu Chatterjee +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevx.8.021048
published as Phys. Rev. X 8, 021048 (2018) · 16 pages, 14 figures
arxiv created 2018/04/02 · arxiv updated 2018/05/30
One of the distinctive features of hole-doped cuprate superconductors is the onset of a `pseudogap' below a temperature T^*. Recent experiments suggest that there may be a connection between the existence of the pseudogap and the topology of the Fermi surface. Here, we address this issue by studying the two-dimensional Hubbard model with two distinct numerical methods. We find that the pseudogap only exists when the Fermi surface is hole-like and that, for a broad range of parameters, its opening is concomitant with a Fermi surface topology change from electron- to hole-like. We identify a common link between these observations: the pole-like feature of the electronic self-energy associated with the formation of the pseudogap is found to also control the degree of particle-hole asymmetry, and hence the Fermi surface topology transition. We interpret our results in the framework of an SU(2) gauge theory of fluctuating antiferromagnetism. We show that a mean-field treatment of this theory in a metallic state with U(1) topological order provides an explanation of this pole-like feature, and a good description of our numerical results. We discuss the relevance of our results to experiments on cuprates.