Singular quasiparticle scattering in the proximity of charge instabilities

Abstract

We analyze the behavior of the dynamic scattering amplitude between Fermi liquid quasiparticles at the Fermi surface in the proximity of a charge instability, which may occur in the high temperature superconducting cuprates. Within the infinite-U Hubbard-Holstein model in the slave-boson large-N technique we find that, in the absence of long-range Coulomb forces the scattering amplitude is strongly singular at zero momentum transfer close to the phase separation instability and it has the same form provided by gauge-field theories. In the presence of long-range Coulomb forces the charge instability occurs at finite wavevectors and concomitantly the scattering is still singular but anisotropic. Nevertheless it remains strong over extended regions of the momentum space. In both cases we show how normal state properties are largely affected by this scattering.