U(1) $\times$ U(1) / Z$_2$ Kosterlitz-Thouless transition of the Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase in an anisotropic two-dimensional system

Abstract

We study Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transitions of the Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) phase for a two-dimensional system composed of coupled one-dimensional tubes of fermions. The LO phase here is characterized by a stripe structure (periodic in only one direction) in the order parameter. The low energy excitations involve the oscillation of the stripe and the fluctuation of the phase, which can be described by an effective theory composed of two anisotropic XY models. We compute from a microscopic model the coefficients of the XY models from which the KT transition temperatures are determined. We found the $T^{KT} \propto t_{\perp}$ for small intertube tunneling $t_{\perp}$. As $t_{\perp}$ increases the system undergoes a first-order transition to the normal phase at zero temperature. Our method can be used to determine the Goldstone excitations of any stripe order involving charge or spin degrees of freedom.