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Elihu Abrahams

Publications and source records attributed to Elihu Abrahams.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2010

Band Narrowing and Mott Localization in Iron Oxychalcogenides La2O2Fe2O(Se,S)2

Bad metal properties have motivated a description of the parent iron pnictides as correlated metals on the verge of Mott localization. What has been unclear is whether interactions can push these and related compounds to the Mott insulating side of the phase diagram. Here we consider the iron oxychalcogenides La2O2Fe2O(Se,S)2, which contain an Fe square lattice with an expanded unit cell. We show theoretically that they contain enhanced correlation effects through band narrowing compared to LaOFeAs, and we provide experimental evidence that they are Mott insulators with moderate charge gaps. We also discuss the magnetic properties in terms of a Heisenberg model with frustrating J1-J2-J2' exchange interactions on a "doubled" checkerboard lattice.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2009

Phenomenology of ESR in heavy fermion systems: Fermi liquid and non-Fermi liquid regime

We extend and apply a recent theory of the dynamical spin response of Anderson lattice systems to interpret ESR data on YbRh2Si2. Starting within a semiphenomenological Fermi liquid description at low temperatures T < Tx (a crossover temperature) and low magnetic fields B << Bx, we extend the description to the non-Fermi liquid regime by adopting a quasiparticle picture with effective mass and spin susceptibility varying logarithmically with energy/temperature, as observed in experiment. We find a sharp ESR resonance line slightly shifted from the local f-level resonance and broadened by quasiparticle scattering (taking unequal g-factors of conduction and f electrons) and by spin-lattice relaxation, both significantly reduced by the effect of ferromagnetic fluctuations. A detailed comparison of our theory with the data shows excellent agreement in the Fermi liquid regime. In the non-Fermi liquid regime we find a close relation of the T-dependence of the specific heat/spin susceptibility with the observed T-dependence of line shift and linewidth.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2009

Correlation effects in the iron pnictides

One of the central questions about the iron pnictides concerns the extent to which their electrons are strongly correlated. Here we address this issue through the phenomenology of the charge transport and dynamics, single-electron excitation spectrum, and magnetic ordering and dynamics. We outline the evidence that the parent compounds, while metallic, have electron interactions that are sufficiently strong to produce incipient Mott physics. In other words, in terms of the strength of electron correlations compared to the kinetic energy, the iron pnictides are closer to intermediately-coupled systems lying at the boundary between itinerancy and localization, such as V2O3 or Se-doped NiS2, rather than to simple antiferromagnetic metals like Cr. This level of electronic correlations produces a new small parameter for controlled theoretical analyses, namely the fraction of the single-electron spectral weight that lies in the coherent part of the excitation spectrum. Using this expansion parameter, we construct the effective low-energy Hamiltonian and discuss its implications for the magnetic order and magnetic quantum criticality. Finally, this approach sharpens the notion of magnetic frustration for such a metallic system, and brings about a multiband matrix t-J1-J2 model for the carrier-doped iron pnictides.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2009

Iron pnictides as a new setting for quantum criticality

Two major themes in the physics of condensed matter are quantum critical phenomena and unconventional superconductivity. These usually occur in the context of competing interactions in systems of strongly-correlated electrons. All this interesting physics comes together in the behavior of the recently discovered iron pnictide compounds that have generated enormous interest because of their moderately high-temperature superconductivity. The ubiquity of antiferromagnetic ordering in their phase diagrams naturally raises the question of the relevance of magnetic quantum criticality, but the answer remains uncertain both theoretically and experimentally. Here we show that the undoped iron pnictides feature a novel type of magnetic quantum critical point, which results from a competition between electronic localization and itinerancy. Our theory provides a mechanism to understand the experimentally-observed variation of the ordered moment among the undoped iron pnictides. We suggest P substitution for As in the undoped iron pnictides as a means to access this new example of magnetic quantum criticality in an unmasked fashion. Our findings point to the iron pnictides as a much-needed new setting for quantum criticality, one that offers a new set of control parameters.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2008

Electron spin resonance in Kondo systems

We calculate the dynamical spin response of Kondo impurity and Kondo lattice systems within a semiphenomenological Fermi liquid description, at low temperatures $T<T_K$, the Kondo temperature, and low magnetic fields $B \ll k_B T_K/gμ_B$. Fermi liquid parameters are determined by comparison (i) with microscopic theory (numerical renormalization group) for the impurity model and (ii) with experiment for the lattice model. We find in the impurity case that the true impurity spin resonance has a width of the order of $T_K$ and disappears altogether if the $g$-factors of impurity spin and conduction electron spin are equal. However, there is an impurity-induced resonance contribution at the conduction electron resonance. The latter is broadened by spin lattice relaxation and is usually unobservable. In contrast, for the Anderson lattice in the Kondo regime we find a \textit{sharp} ESR resonance line only slightly shifted from the local resonance and broadened by spin lattice relaxation, the latter significantly reduced by both the effects of heavy fermion physics and ferromagnetic fluctuations. We conjecture that our findings explain the sharp ESR-lines recently observed in several heavy fermion compounds.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Strong Correlations and Magnetic Frustration in the High Tc Iron Pnictides

We consider the iron pnictides in terms of a proximity to a Mott insulator. The superexchange interactions contain competing nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor components. In the undoped parent compound, these frustrated interactions lead to a two-sublattice collinear antiferromagnet (each sublattice forming a Neel ordering), with a reduced magnitude for the ordered moment. Electron or hole doping, together with the frustration effect, suppresses the magnetic ordering and allows a superconducting state. The exchange interactions favor a d-wave superconducting order parameter; in the notation appropriate for the Fe square lattice, its orbital symmetry is $d_{xy}$. A number of existing and future experiments are discussed in light of the theoretical considerations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2006

Effect of impurities on supersolid condensate: a Ginzburg-Landau approach

Basing our arguments on a wave function that contains both positional and superfluid order, we propose a Ginzburg-Landau functional for a supersolid with the two order parameters necessary to describe such a phase: density n_B(r) and supersolid order parameter ψ_V. We argue that adding lighter $^3$He atoms to a 4He supersolid produces attractive regions for vacancies, leading to patches of higher T_c. On the other hand, the supersolid stiffness decreases in this granular state with increased 3He disorder. Both effects are linear in 3He concentration.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2003

Hall effect in the marginal Fermi liquid regime of high-Tc superconductors

The detailed derivation of a theory for transport in quasi-two-dimensional metals, with small-angle elastic scattering and angle-independent inelastic scattering is presented. The transport equation is solved for a model Fermi surface representing a typical cuprate superconductor. Using the small-angle elastic and the inelastic scattering rates deduced from angle-resolved photoemission experiments, good quantitative agreement with the observed anomalous temperature dependence of the Hall angle in optimally doped cuprates is obtained, while the resistivity remains linear in temperature. The theory is also extended to the frequency-dependent complex Hall angle.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2002

Condensation energy and the mechanism of superconductivity

Condensation energy in a superconductor cannot be precisely defined if mean-field theory fails to hold. This implies that in the case of high temperature superconductors, discussions of quantitative measures of condensation energy must be scrutinized carefully, because the normal state is anomalous and the applicability of a mean-field description can be questioned. A related issue discussed here is the precise meaning of a superconducting transition driven by kinetic as opposed to one driven by potential energy; we argue that this is a semantic question.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2001

Effective Lorentz Force due to Small-angle Impurity Scattering: Magnetotransport in High-Tc Superconductors

We show that a scattering rate which varies with angle around the Fermi surface has the same effect as a periodic Lorentz force on magnetotransport coefficients. This effect, together with the marginal Fermi liquid inelastic scattering rate gives a quantitative explanation of the temperature dependence and the magnitude of the observed Hall effect and magnetoresistance with just the measured zero-field resistivity as input.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1998

Frustrated kinetic energy, the optical sum rule, and the mechanism of superconductivity

The theory that the change of the electronic kinetic energy in a direction perpendicular to the CuO-planes in high-temperature superconductors is a substantial fraction of the condensation energy is examined. It is argued that the consequences of this theory based on a rigorous $c$-axis conductivity sum rule are consistent with recent optical and penetration depth measurements.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv1997

Interactions and Scaling in a Disordered Two-Dimensional Metal

We show that a non-Fermi liquid state of interacting electrons in two dimensions is stable in the presence of disorder and is a perfect conductor, provided the interactions are sufficiently strong. Otherwise, the disorder leads to localization as in the case of non-interacting electrons. This conclusion is established by examining the replica field theory in the weak disorder limit, but in the presence of arbitrary electron-electron interaction. Thus, a disordered two-dimensional metal is a perfect metal, but not a Fermi liquid.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv1997

Conductance fluctuations at the fractional quantum Hall plateau transitions

We obtain a ``mean field'' scaling flow of the longitudinal and the Hall conductivities in the fractional quantum Hall regime. Using the composite fermion picture and assuming that the composite fermions follow the Khmelnitskii-Pruisken scaling flow for the integer quantum Hall effect, the unstable fixed points which govern the transitions between different fractional quantum Hall states are identified. Distributions of the critical longitudinal and Hall conductivities at the unstable fixed points are obtained and implications of the results for the experiments on mesoscopic quantum Hall systems are discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv1997

Scaling theory of two-dimensional metal-insulator transitions

We discuss the recently discovered two-dimensional metal-insulator transition in zero magnetic field in the light of the scaling theory of localization. We demonstrate that the observed symmetry relating conductivity and resistivity follows directly from the quantum critical behavior associated with such a transition. In addition, we show that very general scaling considerations imply that any disordered two dimensional metal is a perfect metal, but most likely not a Fermi liquid.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv1995

On the Spin Gap Phase of Strongly-Correlated Electrons

We discuss the possible existence of a spin-gap phase in the low-doping regime of strongly-correlated two-dimensional electrons within the gauge field description of the t-J model. The spin-gap phase was recently shown by Ubbens and Lee to be destroyed by gauge field quantum fluctuations for a single-layer 2D system in the absence of disorder and for a full gap. We show that the same conclusion applies both in the dirty limit and for the case of a gapless spinon condensate.

cond-mat↗