arXiv subjects

Subir Sachdev

Publications and source records attributed to Subir Sachdev.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Lectures on insulating and conducting quantum spin liquids

Two of the iconic phases of the hole-doped cuprate materials are the intermediate temperature pseudogap metal and the lower temperature $d$-wave superconductor. Following the suggestion of P. W. Anderson, there were early theories of these phases as doped quantum spin liquids. However, these theories have had difficulties with two prominent observations: (i) angle-dependent magnetoresistance measurements (ADMR) in the pseudogap metal, including observation of the Yamaji effect, present convincing evidence of small hole pockets which can tunnel coherently between square lattice layers (Fang et al., Nature Physics 18, 558 (2022); Chan et al., Nature Physics 21, 1753 (2025)) and (ii) the velocities of the nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles in the $d$-wave superconductor are highly anisotropic, with $v_F \gg v_\Delta$ (Chiao et al., Phys. Rev. B 62, 3554 (2000)). These notes review how the fractionalized Fermi Liquid (FL*) state, which dopes quantum spin liquids with gauge-neutral electron-like quasiparticles, resolves both difficulties. Theories of insulating quantum spin liquids employing fractionalization of the electron spin into bosonic or fermionic partons are discussed. Doping the bosonic parton theory leads to a holon metal theory: while not appropriate for the cuprate pseudogap, this theory is argued to apply to ultracold atom experiments on the Lieb lattice. Doping the fermionic parton theory leads to a $d$-wave superconductor with nearly isotropic quasiparticle velocities. The construction of the FL* state in a single band Hubbard-type model is described using a quantum dimer model, followed by a more realistic description using the Ancilla Layer Model (ALM), which is then used to obtain the theory of the pseudogap and the $d$-wave superconductor. The ALM also leads to a wavefunction for the FL* state of the Hubbard model, which agrees with ultracold atom observations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Scaling limits of complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models and holographic geometry

We compare different limits of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model of $N$ complex fermion with $p$-fermion interactions. First, we compute the fermion Green's function and free energy in the limit of large $N$ followed subsequently by the limit of large $p$. Next, we examine the `double-scaling' limit in which the large $N,p$ limits are taken at fixed $\lambda = p^2/N$. Earlier results on the latter limit are resummed for small $\lambda$, and shown to match our results for the first limit. We also describe the holographic match of our results to two-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity with an additional $U(1)$ gauge field.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

Steady-states and response functions of the periodically driven O(N) scalar field theory

We investigate the phase diagram of a relativistic, parametrically driven O($N$)-symmetric theory coupled to a Markovian thermal bath. Our analysis reveals a rich variety of phases, including both uniform and spatially modulated symmetry-broken states, some of which feature an order parameter oscillating at half the drive frequency. When coupled to a background electromagnetic potential, these phases exhibit a Meissner effect, in the sense that the photon acquires a mass term. However, if the order parameter oscillates around a sufficiently small value, a fraction of an externally applied magnetic field can penetrate the sample in the form of a standing wave. We dub this property a \textit{Meissner polariton}, that is, a collective mode resulting from the hybridization of light with order parameter oscillations. Furthermore, near the onset of symmetry breaking, strong fluctuations give rise to a superconducting-like response even in the absence of a Meissner effect or of a Meissner polariton. Our results are relevant to experiments on light-induced orders, particularly superconductivity.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Fermionic spinon theory of the hourglass spin excitation spectrum of the cuprates

We present a theory for the spin fluctuation spectrum of the hole-doped cuprates in a ground state with period 4 unidirectional charge density wave (`stripe') order. Motivated by recent experimental evidence for a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) description of the intermediate temperature pseudogap metal, we employ a theory of fermionic spinons which are confined with the onset of stripe order at low temperatures. The theory produces the `hourglass' spectrum near stripe-ordering wavevector observed by neutron scattering. Additional scattering from spinon continua and bound states appears at higher energies and elsewhere in the Brillouin zone, and could be observed by neutron or X-ray scattering.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Expert Evaluation of LLM World Models: A High-$T_c$ Superconductivity Case Study

Large Language Models (LLMs) show great promise as a powerful tool for scientific literature exploration. However, their effectiveness in providing scientifically accurate and comprehensive answers to complex questions within specialized domains remains an active area of research. Using the field of high-temperature cuprates as an exemplar, we evaluate the ability of LLM systems to understand the literature at the level of an expert. We construct an expert-curated database of 1,726 scientific papers that covers the history of the field, and a set of 67 expert-formulated questions that probe deep understanding of the literature. We then evaluate six different LLM-based systems for answering these questions, including both commercially available closed models and a custom retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system capable of retrieving images alongside text. Experts then evaluate the answers of these systems against a rubric that assesses balanced perspectives, factual comprehensiveness, succinctness, and evidentiary support. Among the six systems two using RAG on curated literature outperformed existing closed models across key metrics, particularly in providing comprehensive and well-supported answers. We discuss promising aspects of LLM performances as well as critical short-comings of all the models. The set of expert-formulated questions and the rubric will be valuable for assessing expert level performance of LLM based reasoning systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Superlinear Hall angle and carrier mobility from non-Boltzmann magnetotransport in the spatially disordered Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model on a square lattice

Exact numerical results for the dc magnetoconductivity tensor of the two-dimensional spatially disordered Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (2D-YSYK) model on a square lattice, at first order in applied perpendicular magnetic field, are obtained from the self-consistent disorder-averaged solution of the 2D-YSYK saddle-point equations. This system describes fermions endowed with a Fermi surface and coupled to a bosonic scalar field through spatially random Yukawa interactions. The resulting local and energy-dependent fermionic self-energies are employed in the Kubo formalism to calculate the longitudinal and Hall conductivities, the Hall coefficient, the carrier mobility, and the cotangent of the Hall angle, at fixed fermion density. From the interplay between YSYK interactions and square-lattice embedding, and the non-Boltzmann frequency-dependent self energies, we find nontrivial evolution of the magnetotransport coefficients as a function of temperature and YSYK interaction strength, notably a superlinear evolution of the Hall-angle cotangent and the inverse carrier mobility with temperature, concomitant with linear-in-temperature resistivity, in an extended crossover regime above the low-temperature Marginal Fermi Liquid (MFL) ground state. Our model and results provide a controlled theoretical framework to interpret magnetotransport experiments, at linear order in applied magnetic field, in strange-metal phases found in strongly correlated solid-state electron systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Yamaji effect in models of underdoped cuprates

Recent angle-dependent magnetoresistance measurements in underdoped cuprates have revealed compelling evidence for small hole pockets in the pseudogap regime, including observation of the Yamaji effect in HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ (Chan et al., Nature Physics 10.1038/s41567-025-03032-2 (2025)). A key distinction between theories is their predicted Fermi volumes, measured as fractions of the square lattice Brillouin zone: $p/4$ per pocket for spin density wave (SDW) versus $p/8$ for fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*), where $p$ is the hole doping. We calculate the $c$-axis magnetoresistance $\rho_{zz}(\theta, \phi)$ within the semiclassical Boltzmann formalism for both states, and using the ancilla layer model (ALM) for FL* in a single-band Hamiltonian. The results from the $\text{FL}^*$ phase show good consistency with current experimental data. Conversely, the results for the SDW phase are highly sensitive to the ordering momentum along the $z$-direction. An ordering vector of $Q = (\pi, \pi, \pi)$ yields predictions that starkly disagree with the experiment. The only possibility for agreement within the SDW scenario is to assume an ordering momentum of $Q = (\pi, \pi, 0)$. However, even in this specific case, the SDW scenario predicts a marginally smaller Yamaji angle at $\phi=0$ than the FL* theory, and a second Yamaji peak near in-plane angle $\phi = 45^\circ$, which was not observed in the experiment. In reality, the N\'eel ordering vector is likely uncorrelated between adjacent layers, so that there is no coherent interlayer transport of hole-pocket quasiparticles in the SDW scenario, and consequently no Yamaji effect. Our results support the FL* interpretation of Fermi arcs in the pseudogap phase, and establish Yamaji angle measurements as a discriminatory tool between theoretical models.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Fractionalized Fermi liquids and the cuprate phase diagram

We review a theoretical framework for the cuprate superconductors, rooted in a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) description of the intermediate-temperature pseudogap phase at low doping. The FL* theory predicted hole pockets each of fractional area $p/8$ at hole doping $p$, in contrast to the area $p/4$ in spin density wave theory. Magnetotransport measurements, including observation of the Yamaji angle, show clear evidence of hole pocket quasiparticles which can tunnel coherently between square lattice layers, and are consistent with the FL* description. The FL* phase of a single-band model is described using a layer construction with a pair of ancilla qubits on each site: the Ancilla Layer Model (ALM). Fluctuations are described by the SU(2) gauge theory of a background spin liquid with critical Dirac spinons. A Monte Carlo study of the thermal SU(2) gauge theory transforms the hole pockets into Fermi arcs in photoemission. One route to confinement of FL* upon lowering temperature yields a $d$-wave superconductor via a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition of $h/(2e)$ vortices, with nodal Bogoliubov quasiparticles featuring anisotropic velocities and vortices surrounded by charge order halos. Increasing doping from the FL* phase in the ALM drives a transition to a conventional Fermi liquid (FL) at large doping, passing through an intermediate strange metal regime. We formulate a theory of the FL*-FL metal-metal transition without a symmetry-breaking order parameter, using a critical quantum `charge' liquid of mobile electrons in the presence of disorder, developed via an extension of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model to two spatial dimensions. At low temperatures, and across optimal and over doping, we address the regimes of extended non-Fermi liquid behavior by Griffiths effects near quantum phase transitions in disordered metals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Thermal SU(2) lattice gauge theory for intertwined orders and hole pockets in the cuprates

The cuprate pseudogap phase displays Fermi arc spectral weight in photoemission and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), while recent magnetotransport observations yield evidence for the existence of hole pockets of fractional area $p/8$, where $p$ is the doping density. We present a Monte Carlo study of a thermal SU(2) lattice gauge theory which can reconcile these observations. Our simulation includes the SU(2) gauge field $U$ of a $\pi$-flux spin liquid, and a SU(2) fundamental charge $e$ Higgs boson $B$. There is a Yukawa coupling between $B$, the fermionic spinons of the spin liquid, and the hole pockets of a fractionalized Fermi liquid. At the higher temperatures of the pseudogap, the finite-doping sign problem is evaded by including only thermal fluctuations of $B$ and $U$, while the fermions are diagonalized exactly for each boson background. Our study also yields a fractionalized description of intertwined orders at lower temperatures, including the onset of $d$-wave superconductivity by the expulsion of vortices with flux $h/(2e)$, each with charge-order halos. We discuss conditions under which quantum oscillations in the density of states from hole pockets of area $p/8$ could be observable in clean under-hole-doped cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Quantum coarsening and collective dynamics on a programmable simulator

Understanding the collective quantum dynamics of nonequilibrium many-body systems is an outstanding challenge in quantum science. In particular, dynamics driven by quantum fluctuations are important for the formation of exotic quantum phases of matter, fundamental high-energy processes, quantum metrology, and quantum algorithms. Here, we use a programmable quantum simulator based on Rydberg atom arrays to experimentally study collective dynamics across a (2+1)D Ising quantum phase transition. After crossing the quantum critical point, we observe a gradual growth of correlations through coarsening of antiferromagnetically ordered domains. By deterministically preparing and following the evolution of ordered domains, we show that the coarsening is driven by the curvature of domain boundaries, and find that the dynamics accelerate with proximity to the quantum critical point. We quantitatively explore these phenomena and further observe long-lived oscillations of the order parameter, corresponding to an amplitude (Higgs) mode. These observations offer a unique viewpoint into emergent collective dynamics in strongly correlated quantum systems and nonequilibrium quantum processes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thermal Hall response of an abelian chiral spin liquid at finite temperatures

Thermal Hall transport has emerged as a valuable tool for probing the fractionalized excitations in chiral quantum spin liquids. Observing quantized thermal Hall response, expected at temperatures below the spectral gap, has been challenging and controversial. The finite temperature behavior, especially in the quantum critical regime above the spectral gap, can provide useful signatures of the underlying topological order. In this context, we study the spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a kagome lattice that is believed to be a U$(1)$ Dirac spin liquid over a wide intermediate energy range. Scalar spin chirality perturbations turn this into a gapped abelian chiral spin liquid (CSL) with semionic topological order. Using a recently developed large-$N$ technique [Guo et al., Phys. Rev. B 101, 195126 (2020)], we obtain explicit expressions for the thermal Hall conductivity $κ_{xy}$ at finite temperatures taking into account both matter and gauge fluctuations. At low temperatures below the spectral gap, the quantized thermal Hall response agrees with that expected from conformal field theory and gravitational anomaly arguments. Our main finding is that in a large temperature window spanning the spectral gap and the Curie temperature scales where quantum critical fluctuations dominate, $κ_{xy}/T$ obeys a power-law with logarithmic corrections. Our analysis also provides a route to understanding the thermal Hall response at higher temperatures in the quantum critical regime.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Thermopower across Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions without translational symmetry breaking

We describe the evolution of low-temperature thermopower across Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions in Kondo lattice models without translational symmetry breaking. This transition moves from a heavy Fermi liquid with a conventional Luttinger-volume large Fermi surface to a 'FL*' state, characterized by a small Fermi surface and a spin liquid with fractionalized excitations. The onset of the large Fermi surface phase is driven by the condensation of a Higgs field that carries a unit gauge charge under an emergent U(1) gauge field. We consider the case with spatially random Kondo exchange, as this leads to strange metal behavior in electrical transport. We find a large asymmetric thermopower in a 'skewed' marginal Fermi liquid, with similarities to the skewed non-Fermi liquid of Georges and Mravlje (arXiv:2102.13224). Our findings are consistent with recent observations in heavy fermion compounds (Z.-Y. Cao et al., arXiv:2408.13604), and describe an enhancement of thermopower on the large Fermi surface side as well as a non-monotonic behavior on the small Fermi surface side. Our results also apply to single-band Hubbard models and the pseudogap transition in the cuprates. In the ancilla framework, single-band models exhibit an inverted Kondo lattice transition: the small Fermi surface pseudogap state corresponds to the condensed Higgs state. This inversion results in an enhancement of thermopower on the pseudogap side in our theory, consistent with observations in the cuprates (C. Collignon et al., arXiv:2011.14927; A. Gourgout et al., arXiv:2106.05959). We argue that these observations support a non-symmetry-breaking Fermi-volume-changing transition as the underlying description of the onset of the pseudogap in the cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Strong non-linear response of strange metals

We show that nonlinear transport responses in strange metals are strong, larger by a factor of $E_F/T$ than in Fermi liquids. Within the two-dimensional Yukawa-Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model of a Fermi surface with a spatially random coupling to a critical scalar, the third order conductivity is found to diverge as $1/T$ at low $T$, indicating the existence of a voltage-temperature scaling regime in the conductance. Its frequency and orientation dependence contains information on relaxation times of heat and electron distribution deformations, providing a new set of tools to characterize strange metals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

The foot, the fan, and the cuprate phase diagram: Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions

A Fermi liquid with a 'large' Fermi surface (FL) can have a quantum phase transition to a spin density wave state (SDW) with reconstructed 'small' Fermi pockets. Both FL and SDW phases obey the Luttinger constraints on the volume enclosed by the Fermi surfaces. Critical spin fluctuations lead to spin-singlet $d$-wave pairing, as observed in the cuprates. Studies of the influence of spatial disorder on the FL-SDW quantum phase transition predict an extended quantum-critical Griffiths-type phase at low temperatures on the large Fermi surface side. These computations agree with the 'foot' of strange metal transport, and recent low temperature neutron scattering observations on La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. However, this theory cannot explain the higher temperature pseudogap and the 'fan' of strange metal behavior of the hole-doped cuprates. Here we need to consider underlying Fermi-volume-changing quantum phase transitions without symmetry breaking. Then the small Fermi surface phase does not obey the Luttinger constraint, and the pseudogap metal is described by thermal fluctuations above a 'fractionalized Fermi liquid' (FL*) or a 'holon metal', with the descriptions related by a duality on a background spin liquid. The quantum critical fan is described using a field theory for an underlying FL-FL* quantum phase transition in the presence of spatial disorder. This field theory can be mapped to a form which can be analyzed using the methods of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. Such an analysis successfully models linear-in-temperature resistivity, optical conductivity and thermopower observations in the quantum critical fan. The confinement crossover connecting these lower and higher temperature descriptions is also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

A model of $d$-wave superconductivity, antiferromagnetism, and charge order on the square lattice

Early studies proposed a connection between cuprate superconductivity and fractionalized spin liquid states. But the low temperature phase diagram is dominated by states without fractionalization, with a competition between superconductivity and charge-ordered states which break translational symmetry. Our theory uncovers novel features associated with a particular spin-liquid presumed to underlie the pseudogap metal, and shows that it has multiple nearly-degenerate instabilities to confinement of fractionalized excitations, leading to antiferromagnetism, $d$-wave superconductivity, and/or charge order. Our theory provides routes to resolving a number of open puzzles on the cuprate phase diagram. The spin liquid is described by a SU(2) gauge theory of $N_f=2$ massless fundamental Dirac fermions, has an emergent SO(5)$_f$ global symmetry, and is presumed to confine at low energies to the Néel state. At non-zero doping (or smaller Hubbard repulsion at half-filling) we argue that confinement occurs via the Higgs condensation of bosonic chargons carrying fundamental SU(2) gauge charges moving in $π$ flux. At half-filling, the low energy Higgs sector has $N_b=2$ relativistic bosons with a possible emergent SO(5)$_b$ global symmetry describing rotations between a $d$-wave superconductor, period-2 charge stripes, and the time-reversal breaking `$d$-density wave' state. We propose a deconfined quantum critical point between a confining state which breaks SO(5)$_f$ and a confining state which breaks SO(5)$_b$. The pattern of symmetry breaking within both SO(5)s is determined by terms likely irrelevant at the critical point, which can be chosen to obtain a transition between Néel order and $d$-wave superconductivity. A similar theory applies at non-zero doping and large $U$, with longer-range couplings of the chargons leading to charge order with longer periods.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Quantum oscillations in the hole-doped cuprates and the confinement of spinons

A long standing problem in the study of the under-hole-doped cuprates has been the description of the Fermi surfaces underlying the high magnetic field quantum oscillations, and their connection to the higher temperature pseudogap metal. Harrison and Sebastian (arXiv:1103.4181) proposed that the pseudogap `Fermi arcs' are reconstructed into an electron pocket by field-induced charge density wave order. But computations on such a model (Zhang and Mei, arXiv:1411.2098) show an unobserved additional oscillation frequency from a Fermi surface arising from the backsides of the hole pockets completing the Fermi arcs. We describe a transition from a fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*) model of the pseudogap metal, to a metal with bi-directional charge density wave order without fractionalization. We show that the confinement of the fermionic spinon excitations of the FL* across this transition can eliminate the unobserved oscillation frequency.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Electronic spectra with paramagnon fractionalization in the single band Hubbard model

We examine the spectral properties of a recently proposed theory of the intermediate temperature pseudogap metal phase of the cuprates. We show that this theory can be obtained from the familiar paramagnon theory of nearly antiferromagnetic metals by fractionalizing the paramagnon into two `hidden' layers of S=1/2 spins. The first hidden layer of spins hybridizes with the electrons as in a Kondo lattice heavy Fermi liquid, while the second hidden layer of spins forms a spin liquid with fractionalized spinon excitations. We compute the imaginary part of the electronic self energy induced by the spinon excitations. The energy and momentum dependence of the photoemission spectrum across the Brillouin zone provides a good match to observations by He et al. in Bi2201 (Science 331, 1579 (2011)) and by Chen et al. in Bi2212 (Science 366, 1099 (2019)).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Numerical renormalization of glassy dynamics

The quench dynamics of glassy systems are challenging. Due to aging, the system never reaches a stationary state but instead evolves on emergent scales that grow with its age. This slow evolution complicates field-theoretic descriptions, as the weak long-term memory and the absence of a stationary state hinder simplifications of the memory, always leading to the worst-case scaling of computational effort with the cubic power of the simulated time. Here, we present an algorithm based on two-dimensional interpolations of Green's functions, which resolves this issue and achieves sublinear scaling of computational cost. We apply it to the quench dynamics of the spherical mixed $p$-spin model to establish the existence of a phase transition between glasses with strong and weak ergodicity breaking at a finite temperature of the initial state. By reaching times three orders of magnitude larger than previously attainable, we determine the critical exponents of this transition. Interestingly, these are continuously varying and, therefore, non-universal. While we introduce and validate the method in the context of a glassy system, it is equally applicable to any model with overdamped excitations.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗