arXiv subjects

S. A. Kivelson

Publications and source records attributed to S. A. Kivelson.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

How to detect fluctuating order in the high-temperature superconductors

We discuss fluctuating order in a quantum disordered phase proximate to a quantum critical point, with particular emphasis on fluctuating stripe order. Optimal strategies for extracting information concerning such local order from experiments are derived with emphasis on neutron scattering and scanning tunneling microscopy. These ideas are tested by application to two model systems - the exactly solvable one dimensional electron gas with an impurity, and a weakly-interacting 2D electron gas. We extensively review experiments on the cuprate high-temperature superconductors which can be analyzed using these strategies. We adduce evidence that stripe correlations are widespread in the cuprates. Finally, we compare and contrast the advantages of two limiting perspectives on the high-temperature superconductor: weak coupling, in which correlation effects are treated as a perturbation on an underlying metallic (although renormalized) Fermi liquid state, and strong coupling, in which the magnetism is associated with well defined localized spins, and stripes are viewed as a form of micro-phase separation. We present quantitative indicators that the latter view better accounts for the observed stripe phenomena in the cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2002

The optimal inhomogeneity for superconductivity

We study the effect of nonuniform transverse couplings on a quasi-one dimensional superconductor. We show that inhomogeneous couplings quite generally increase the superconducting (pairing) gap relative to the uniform system, but that beyond an ``optimal'' degree of inhomogeneity, they lead to a suppression of the tendency to phase coherence. The optimal conditions for superconductivity are derived. We also show that a {\it delocalized}, spin-gapped phase is stable against weak disorder in a four-leg-ladder with moderate repulsive interactions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2002

Concepts in High Temperature Superconductivity

It is the purpose of this paper to explore the theory of high temperature superconductivity. Much of the motivation for this comes from the study of the cuprate high temperature superconductors. However, our primary focus is on the core theoretical issues associated with the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity more generally. We concentrate on physics at intermediate temperature scales of order $T_c$ (as well as the somewhat larger "pseudogap" temperature) and energies of order the gap maximum, $Δ_0$. Prominent themes throughout the article are the need for a kinetic energy driven mechanism, and the role of mesoscale structure in enhancing pairing from repulsive interactions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Stripes and superconducting pairing in the t-J model with Coulomb interactions

We study the competition between long- and short-range interactions among charge carriers in strongly-correlated electronic systems employing a new method which combines the density-matrix renormalization-group technique with a self-consistent treatment of the long-range interactions. We apply the method to an extended t-J model which exhibits ``stripe'' order. The Coulomb interactions, while not destroying stripes, induce large transverse stripe fluctuations with associated charge delocalization. This leads to a substantial Coulomb-repulsion-induced {\it enhancement} of long-range superconducting pair-field correlations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2001

Nodal quasi-particles and coexisting orders in striped superconductors

We study the properties of a quasi-one dimensional superconductor which consists of an alternating array of two inequivalent chains. This model is a simple charicature of a locally striped high temperature superconductor, and is more generally a theoretically controllable system in which the superconducting state emerges from a non-Fermi liquid normal state. Even in this limit, ``d-wave like'' order parameter symmetry is natural, but the superconducting state can either have a complete gap in the quasi-particle spectrum, or gapless ``nodal'' quasiparticles. We also find circumstances in which antiferromagnetic order (typically incommensurate) coexists with superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Distribution of spectral weight in a system with disordered stripes

The ``band-structure'' of a disordered stripe array is computed and compared, at a qualitative level, to angle resolved photoemission experiments on the cuprate high temperature superconductors. The low-energy states are found to be strongly localized transverse to the stripe direction, so the electron dynamics is strictly one-dimensional (along the stripe). Despite this, aspects of the two dimensional band-structure Fermi surface are still vividly apparent.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Electron Fractionalization

A largely qualitative, and rather idiosyncratic discussion of electron fractionalization in condensed matter physics is presented, including some historical reflections and some speculations concerning future application of these ideas. Particular attention is paid to systems which exhibit spin-charge separation, i.e. the electron can decay into separate excitations which carry the electron spin and the electron charge; the soliton model of polyacetylene is treated as a paradigmatic example. This paper is based on a talk given at a symposium honoring A.J.Heeger, A.G.MacDiarmid, and H.Shirakawa, the winners of the year 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2001

Dimensional Crossover in Quasi One-Dimensional and High T_c Superconductors

The one-dimensional electron gas exhibits spin-charge separation and power-law spectral responses to many experimentally relevant probes. Ordering in a quasi one-dimensional system is necessarily associated with a dimensional crossover, at which sharp quasiparticle peaks, with small spectral weight, emerge from the incoherent background. Using methods of Abelian bosonization, we derive asymptotically correct expressions for the spectral changes induced by this crossover. Comparison is made with experiments on the high temperature superconductors, which are electronically quasi one-dimensional on a local scale.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

Evidence of Electron Fractionalization from Photoemission Spectra in the High Temperature Superconductors

In the normal state of the high temperature superconductors Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+delta} and La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_4, and in the related ``stripe ordered'' material La_1.25Nd_0.6Sr_0.15CuO_4, there is sharp structure in the measured single hole spectral function A(k,w) considered as a function of k at fixed small binding energy w. At the same time, as a function of w at fixed k on much of the putative Fermi surface, any structure in A(k,w), other than the Fermi cutoff, is very broad. This is characteristic of the situation in which there are no stable excitations with the quantum numbers of the electron, as is the case in the one dimensional electron gas.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Stripe phases in high-temperature superconductors

Stripe phases are predicted and observed to occur in a class of strongly-correlated materials describable as doped antiferromagnets, of which the copper-oxide superconductors are the most prominent representative. The existence of stripe correlations necessitates the development of new principles for describing charge transport, and especially superconductivity, in these materials.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Classification and Stability of Phases of the Multicomponent One-Dimensional Electron Gas

The classification of the ground-state phases of complex one-dimensional electronic systems is considered in the context of a fixed-point strategy. Examples are multichain Hubbard models, the Kondo-Heisenberg model, and the one-dimensional electron gas in an active environment. It is shown that, in order to characterize the low-energy physics, it is necessary to analyze the perturbative stability of the possible fixed points, to identify all discrete broken symmetries, and to specify the quantum numbers and elementary wave vectors of the gapless excitations. Many previously-proposed exotic phases of multichain Hubbard models are shown to be unstable because of the ``spin-gap proximity effect.'' A useful tool in this analysis is a new generalization of Luttinger's theorem, which shows that there is a gapless even-charge mode in any incommensurate N-component system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Local Electronic Structure and High Temperature Superconductivity

It is argued that a new mechanism and many-body theory of superconductivity are required for doped correlated insulators. Here we review the essential features of and the experimental support for such a theory, in which the physics is driven by the kinetic energy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Classical Phase Fluctuations in High Temperature Superconductors

Phase fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter play a larger role in the cuprates than in conventional BCS superconductors because of the low superfluid density of a doped insulator. In this paper, we analyze an XY model of classical phase fluctuations in the high temperature superconductors using a low-temperature expansion and Monte Carlo simulations. In agreement with experiment, the value of the superfluid density at temperature T=0 is a quite robust predictor of Tc, and the evolution of the superfluid density with T, including its T-linear behavior at low temperature, is insensitive to microscopic details.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

Charge Transport in Synthetic Metals

The phenomenology of charge transport in synthetic metals is reviewed. It is argued that the conventional quasiparticle picture and Boltzmann transport theory do not apply to these materials. The central ideas of Fermi liquid theory are reviewed, and the significant corrections produced by quasiparticle scattering from ferromagnetic spin fluctuations in liquid $^3$He are described. It is shown that Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ does not display the symptoms of a nearly-ferromagnetic Fermi liquid, so the source of its odd angular momentum pairing remains to be understood. The solution of an assisted-tunneling model of charge transport in quasi-one dimensional materials is described. This model has a quantum critical point and gives a resistivity that is linear in temperature or frequency, whichever is greater.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Microscopic Theory of High Temperature Superconductivity

It is argued that the BCS many-body theory, which is outstandingly successful for conventional superconductors, does not apply to the high temperature superconductors and that a realistic theory must take account of the local electronic structure (stripes). The spin gap proximity effect is a mechanism by which the charge carriers on the stripes and the spins in the intervening regions acquire a spin gap at a relatively high temperature, with only strong repulsive interactions. Superconducting phase order is achieved at a lower temperature determined by the (relatively low) superfluid density of the doped insulator. This picture is consistent with the phenomenology of the high temperature superconductors. It is shown that, in momentum space, the spin gap first arises in the neighborhood of the points $(0,\pm π)$ and $(\pm π, 0)$ and then spreads along arcs of the Fermi surface. Some of the experimental consequences of this picture are discussed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1998

Stripe Liquid, Crystal, and Glass Phases of Doped Antiferromagnets

A largely descriptive survey is given of the ordered phases of doped antiferromagnets, and of the long wavelength properties that can be derived from an order-parameter theory. In particular, we show that the competition between the long-range Coulomb repulsion and the strong short-distance tendency of doped holes to coalesce into regions of supressed antiferromagnetism leads to a variety of self-organized charge structures on intermediate length scales, of which ``stripes'' are the most common, both theoretically and experimentally. These structures lead to a rich assortment of novel electronic phases and crossover phenomena, as indicated in the title. We use the high temperature superconductors as the experimentally best-studied examples of doped antiferromagnets.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1997

Crossovers and Phase Coherence in Cuprate Superconductors

High temperature superconductivity is a property of doped antiferromagnetic insulators. The electronic structure is inhomogeneous on short length and time scales, and, as the temperature decreases, it evolves via two crossovers, before long range superconducting order is achieved. Except for overdoped materials, pairing and phase coherence occur at different temperatures, and phase fluctuations determine both T$_c$ and the temperature dependence of the superfluid density for a wide range of doping. A mechanism for obtaining a high pairing scale in a short coherence length material with a strong poorly-screened Coulomb interaction is described.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1997

Doped Antiferromagnets in High Dimension

The ground-state properties of the t-J model on a d-dimensional hypercubic lattice are examined in the limit of large d. It is found that the undoped system is an ordered antiferromagnet, and that the doped system phase separates into a hole-free antiferromagnetic phase and a hole-rich phase. The latter is electron free if J > 4t and is weakly metallic (and typically superconducting) if J < 4t. The resulting phase diagram is qualitatively similar to the one previously derived for d=2 by a combination of analytic and numerical methods. Domain wall (or stripe) phases form in the presence of weak Coulomb interactions, with periodicity determined by the hole concentration and the relative strength of the exchange and Coulomb interactions. These phases reflect the properties of the hole-rich phase in the absence of Coulomb interactions, and, depending on the value of J/t, may be either insulating or metallic (i.e. an ``electron smectic'').

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