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arXiv · 2203.04990

Universal theory of strange metals from spatially random interactions

Aavishkar A. Patel·Haoyu Guo·Ilya Esterlis·Subir Sachdev
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Abstract

We consider two-dimensional metals of fermions coupled to quantum critical scalars, the latter representing order parameters or emergent gauge fields. We show that at low temperatures ($T$), such metals generically exhibit strange metal behavior with a $T$-linear resistivity arising from spatially random fluctuations in the fermion-scalar Yukawa couplings about a non-zero spatial average. We also find a $T\ln (1/T)$ specific heat, and a rationale for the Planckian bound on the transport scattering time. These results are obtained in the large $N$ expansion of an ensemble of critical metals.

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Aavishkar A. Patel, Haoyu Guo, Ilya Esterlis, Subir Sachdev. 2022-03-09. Universal theory of strange metals from spatially random interactions. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq6011

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