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Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Phase Fluctuations in Cuprate Superconductors: A QED$_3$ Unified Theory of the Pseudogap State

Z. Tesanovic·O. Vafek·M. Franz
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Abstract

A d-wave superconductor, its phase coherence progressively destroyed by unbinding of vortex-antivortex pairs, suffers an instability related to chiral symmetry breaking in two-flavor QED$_3$. The chiral manifold exhibits large degeneracy spanned by physical states acting as inherent ``competitors'' of d-wave superconductivity. Two of these states are associated with antiferromagnetic insulator and ``stripe'' phases, known to be stable in the pseudogap regime of cuprates near half-filling. The theory also predicts additional, yet unobserved state: a d+ip phase-incoherent superconductor.

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Z. Tesanovic, O. Vafek, M. Franz. 2001-10-12. Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Phase Fluctuations in Cuprate Superconductors: A QED$_3$ Unified Theory of the Pseudogap State. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.65.180511

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