Field-theoretic functional renormalization group formalism for non-Fermi liquids and its application to the antiferromagnetic quantum critical metal in two dimensions

Abstract

To capture the universal low-energy physics of metals within effective field theories, one has to generalize the usual notion of scale invariance and renormalizable field theory due to the presence of intrinsic scales (Fermi momenta). In this paper, we develop a field-theoretic functional renormalization group formalism for full low-energy effective field theories of non-Fermi liquids that include all gapless modes around the Fermi surface. The formalism is applied to the non-Fermi liquid that arises at the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in two space dimensions. In the space of coupling functions, an interacting fixed point arises at a point with momentum-independent couplings and vanishing nesting angle. In theories deformed with non-zero nesting angles, coupling functions acquire universal momentum profiles controlled by the bare nesting angles at low energies before flowing to superconducting states in the low-energy limit. The superconducting instability is unavoidable because lukewarm electrons that are coherent enough to be susceptible to pairing end up being subject to a renormalized attractive interaction with its minimum strength set by the nesting angle. Despite the inevitable superconducting instability, theories with small bare nesting angles and bare four-fermion couplings that are repulsive or weakly attractive must pass through the region with slow RG flow due to the proximity to the non-Fermi liquid fixed point. The bottleneck region controls the scaling behaviours of the normal state and the quasi-universal pathway from the non-Fermi liquid to superconductivity. In the limit that the nesting angle is small, the non-Fermi liquid scaling dictates the physics over a large window of energy scale above the superconducting transition temperature.