Controlled calculation of the thermal conductivity for a spinon Fermi surface coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field

Abstract

Motivated by recent transport measurements on the candidate spin-liquid phase of the organic triangular lattice insulator EtMe$_3$Sb[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$, we perform a controlled calculation of the thermal conductivity at intermediate temperatures in a spin liquid system where a spinon Fermi surface is coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field. The present computation builds upon the double expansion approach developed by Mross \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. B \textbf{82}, 045121 (2010)] for small $\epsilon=z_b -2$ (where $z_b$ is the dynamical critical exponent of the gauge field) and large number of fermionic species $N$. Using the so-called memory matrix formalism that most crucially does not assume the existence of well-defined quasiparticles at low energies in the system, we calculate the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ of this model due to non-critical Umklapp scattering of the spinons for a finite $N$ and small $\epsilon$. Then we discuss the physical implications of such theoretical result in connection with the experimental data available in the literature.