arXiv subjects

Zheng-Yu Weng

Publications and source records attributed to Zheng-Yu Weng.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Luttinger-volume violating Fermi liquid in the pseudogap phase of the cuprate superconductors

Based on the NMR measurements on Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+δ}$ (La-Bi2201) in strong magnetic fields, we identify the non-superconducting pseudogap phase in the cuprates as a Luttinger-volume violating Fermi liquid (LvvFL). This state is a zero temperature quantum liquid that does not break translational symmetry, and yet, the Fermi surface encloses a volume smaller than the large one given by the Luttinger theorem. The particle number enclosed by the small Fermi surface in the LvvFL equals the doping level $p$, not the total electron number $n_e=1-p$. Both the phase string theory and the dopon theory are introduced to describe the LvvFL. For the dopon theory, we can obtain a semi-quantitative agreement with the NMR experiments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Superconductivity in Mutual Chern-Simons Gauge Theory

In this work, we present a topological characterization of superconductivity in a prototype electron fractionalization model for doped Mott insulators. In this model, spinons and holons are coupled via the mutual Chern-Simons gauge fields. We obtain a low-lying effective description of the collective current fluctuations by integrating out the matter fields, which replaces the conventional Ginzburg-Landau action to describe the generalized rigidity of superconductivity. The superconducting phase coherence is essentially characterized by a topological order parameter related to a Gaussian linking number, and an experiment is proposed to probe this topological property. We further show that a gauge-neutral fermionic mode can naturally emerge in this model, which behaves like a Bogoliubov quasiparticle.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Mott physics, sign structure, ground state wavefunction, and high-Tc superconductivity

In this article I give a pedagogical illustration of why the essential problem of high-Tc superconductivity in the cuprates is about how an antiferromagnetically ordered state can be turned into a short-range state by doping. I will start with half-filling where the antiferromagnetic ground state is accurately described by the Liang-Doucot-Anderson (LDA) wavefunction. Here the effect of the Fermi statistics becomes completely irrelevant due to the no double occupancy constraint. Upon doping, the statistical signs reemerge, albeit much reduced as compared to the original Fermi statistical signs. By precisely incorporating this altered statistical sign structure at finite doping, the LDA ground state can be recast into a short-range antiferromagnetic state. Superconducting phase coherence arises after the spin correlations become short-ranged, and the superconducting phase transition is controlled by spin excitations. I will stress that the pseudogap phenomenon naturally emerges as a crossover between the antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases. As a characteristic of non Fermi liquid, the mutual statistical interaction between the spin and charge degrees of freedom will reach a maximum in a high-temperature "strange metal phase" of the doped Mott insulator.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Phase diagram and a possible unified description of intercalated iron selenide superconductors

We propose a theoretical description of the phase diagram and physical properties in A2Fe4Se5-type (A=K, Tl) compounds based on a coexistent local moment and itinerant electron picture. Using neutron scattering and ARPES measurements to fix the general structure of the local moment and itinerant Fermi pockets, we find a superconducting (SC) regime with s-wave pairing at the M pockets and an incipient sign-change s-wave near the Gamma point, which is adjacent to an insulating state at low doping and a charge-density-wave (CDW) state at high doping. The uniform susceptibility and resistivity are found to be consistent with the experiment. The main distinction with iron pnictide superconductors is also discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Superconducting ground state of a doped Mott insulator

A d-wave superconducting ground state for a doped Mott insulator is obtained. It is distinguished from a Gutzwiller-projected BCS superconductor by an explicit separation of Cooper pairing and resonating valence bond (RVB) pairing. Such a state satisfies the precise sign structure of the t-J model, just like that a BCS state satisfies the Fermi-Dirac statistics. This new class of wavefunctions can be intrinsically characterized and effectively manipulated by electron fractionalization with neutral spinons and backflow spinons forming a two-component RVB structure. While the former spinon is bosonic, originated from the superexchange correlation, the latter spinon is found to be fermionic, accompanying the hopping of bosonic holons. The low-lying emergent gauge fields associated with such a specific fractionalization are of mutual Chern-Simons type. Corresponding to this superconducting ground state, three types of elementary excitations are identified. Among them a Bogoliubov nodal quasiparticle is conventional, while the other two are neutral excitations of non-BCS type that play crucial roles in higher energy/temperaure regimes. Their unique experimental implications for the cuprates are briefly discussed.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Confinement-deconfinement interplay in quantum phases of doped Mott insulators

It is generally accepted that doped Mott insulators can be well characterized by the t-J model. In the t-J model, the electron fractionalization is dictated by the phase string effect. We found that in the underdoped regime, the antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases are dual: in the former, holons are confined while spinons are deconfined, and {\it vice versa} in the latter. These two phases are separated by a novel phase, the so-called Bose-insulating phase, where both holons and spinons are deconfined. A pair of Wilson loops was found to constitute a complete set of order parameters determining this zero-temperature phase diagram. The quantum phase transitions between these phases are suggested to be of non-Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson type.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Magnetic and superconducting instabilities in a hybrid model of itinerant/localized electrons for iron pnictides

We study a unified mechanism for spin-density-wave (SDW) and superconductivity in a minimal model, in which itinerant electrons and local moments coexist as previously proposed for the iron pnictides [EPL, 88, 17010 (2009)]. The phase diagram obtained at the mean field level is in qualitative agreement with the experiment, which shows how the magnetic and superconducting (SC) instabilities are driven by the critial coupling between the itinerant/localized electrons. The spin and charge response functions at the random phase approximation (RPA) level further characterize the dynamical evolution of the system. In particular, the dynamic spin susceptibility displays a Goldstone mode in the SDW phase, which evolves into a gapped resonance-like mode in the superconducting phase. The latter persists all the way into the normal state above Tc, where a strong scattering between the itinerant electrons and local moments is restored, as an essential feature of the model.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Statistical fluxes and the Curie-Weiss metal state

We predict a new state of matter in the triangular t-J model in a high doping regime. Due to the altered role of quantum statistics the spins are `localized' in statistical Landau orbits, while the charge carriers form a Bose metal that feels the spins through random gauge fields. In contrast to the Fermi-liquid state, this state naturally exhibits a Curie-Weiss susceptibility, large thermopower, and linear-temperature resistivity, explaining the physics of \textrm{Na}$_{x}$\textrm{CoO}$_{2}$ at $x>0.5.$ A `smoking gun' prediction for neutron scattering is presented.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Critical theory of the topological quantum phase transition in a spin-2 chain

We systematically study the phase diagram of S=2 spin chain, by means of density-matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization methods and confirm the presence of a dimer phase in the AKLT--SZH model. We find that the whole phase boundary between the dimer and SZH phases, including the multicritical point, is a critical line with the same central charge $c=5/2$. Finally, we propose and confirm that this line can be described by the $\rm SO(5)_1$ Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) conformal field theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Topological quantum phase transition in an S=2 spin chain

We construct a model Hamiltonian for S = 2 spin chain, where a variable parameter $α$ is introduced. The edge spin is S = 1 for $α= 0$, and S = 3/2 for $α= 1$. Due to the topological distinction of the edge states, these two phases must be separated by one or several topological quantum phase transitions. We investigate the nature of the quantum phase transition by DMRG calculation, and propose a phase diagram for this model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Collective spin mode in a multi-component system of coupled itinerant and localized electrons

We study collective spin excitations of a magnetically ordered state in a multi-component system composed of both itinerant electrons and local moments. Here the induced spin-density-wave (SDW) ordering of itinerant electrons and the collinear antiferromangetic (AF) ordering of local moments are locked together via a Hund's rule coupling. We show that the Goldstone theorem still holds at the RPA level with the gapless spin wave protected inside the small SDW gap of itinerant electrons, which, however, is fragile in the presence of ion-anisotropy. A gapped out-of-phase spin mode extending over a much wider energy scale above the SDW gap is found to be more robust against the ion-anisotropy, which is mainly contributed by the local moment fluctuations. While the scattering between the Goldstone mode and itinerant electrons diminishes within the SDW gap, the out-of-phase mode will strongly interact with itinerant electrons and thus dominate the spin and charge dynamics in such an ordered phase. Possible relevance of such a model to the iron-pnictides will be also discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Coexistence of Itinerant Electrons and Local Moments in Iron-Based Superconductors

In view of the recent experimental facts in the iron-pnictides, we make a proposal that the itinerant electrons and local moments are simultaneously present in such multiband materials. We study a minimal model composed of coupled itinerant electrons and local moments to illustrate how a consistent explanation of the experimental measurements can be obtained in the leading order approximation. In this mean-field approach, the spin-density-wave (SDW) order and superconducting pairing of the itinerant electrons are not directly driven by the Fermi surface nesting, but are mainly induced by their coupling to the local moments. The presence of the local moments as independent degrees of freedom naturally provides strong pairing strength for superconductivity and also explains the normal-state linear-temperature magnetic susceptibility above the SDW transition temperature. We show that this simple model is supported by various anomalous magnetic properties and isotope effect which are in quantitative agreement with experiments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Universal linear-temperature dependence of static magnetic susceptibility in iron-pnictides

A universal linear-temperature dependence of the uniform magnetic susceptibility has been observed in the nonmagnetic normal state of iron-pnictides. This non-Pauli and non-Curie-Weiss-like paramagnetic behavior cannot be understood within a pure itinerant picture. We argue that it results from the existence of a wide antiferromagnetic fluctuation window in which the local spin-density-wave correlations exist but the global directional order has not been established yet.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Hidden SDW order and effective low-energy theory for FeAs superconductors

We propose a simple effective model to describe FeAs superconductors. This model is based on the assumption of a local spin-density-wave (SDW) order, with its magnetization direction allowed to fluctuate. It is shown that the long-range order with momentum Q=(π,π) is generally unstable in competing with the kinetic energy of the charge carriers. A true weak SDW order is formed in the undoped case with an additional momentum shift Q_s=(π, 0) due to the peculiar Fermi surface nesting. In the doped case, the unstable long-range order driven by kinetic energy can naturally result in a d-wave superconducting condensation. Such low-energy physics is protected by the presence of the local SDW which sustains some kind of "Mott gags" for the multiband d-electrons near the Fermi energy.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Charge dynamics in the phase string model for high-Tc superconductors

An understanding of the anomalous charge dynamics in the high-Tc cuprates is obtained based on a model study of doped Mott insulators. The high-temperature optical conductivity is found to generally have a two-component structure: a Drude like part followed by a mid-infrared band. The scattering rate associated with the Drude part exhibits a linear-temperature dependence over a wide range of high temperature, while the Drude term gets progressively suppressed below a characteristic energy of magnetic origin as the system enters the pseudogap phase. The high-energy optical conductivity shows a resonancelike feature in an underdoped case and continuously evolves into a 1/ωtail at higher doping, indicating that they share the same physical origin. In particular, such a high-energy component is closely correlated with the ω-peak structure of the density-density correlation function at different momenta, in systematic consistency with exact diagonalization results based on the t-J model. The underlying physics is attributed to the high-energy spin-charge separation in the model, in which the "mode coupling" responsible for the anomalous charge properties is not between the electrons and some collective mode but rather between new charge carriers, holons, and a novel topological gauge field controlled by spin dynamics, as the consequence of the strong short-range electron-electron Coulomb repulsion in the doped Mott insulator.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Phase String Theory for Doped Antiferromagnets

The recent developments of the phase string theory for doped antiferromagnets will be briefly reviewed. Such theory is built upon a singular phase string effect induced by the motion of holes in a doped antiferromagnet, which as a precise property of the t-J model dictates the novel competition between the charge and spin degrees of freedom. A global phase diagram including the antiferromagnetic, superconducting, lower and upper pseudogap, and high-temperature "normal" phases, as well as a series of anomalous physical properties of these phases will be presented as the self-consistent and systematic consequences of the phase string theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Mutual Chern-Simons Theory of Spontaneous Vortex Phase

We apply the mutual Chern-Simons effective theory (Phys. Rev. B 71, 235102) of the doped Mott insulator to the study of the so-called spontaneous vortex phase in the low-temperature pseudogap region, which is characterized by strong unconventional superconducting fluctuations. An effective description for the spontaneous vortex phase is derived from the general mutual Chern-Simons Lagrangian, based on which the physical properties including the diamagnetism, spin paramagnetism, magneto-resistance, and the Nernst coefficient, have been quantitatively calculated. The phase boundaries of the spontaneous vortex phase which sits between the onset temperature $T_{v}$ and the superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$, are also determined within the same framework. The results are consistent with the experimental measurements of the cuprates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Why a local moment induces an antiferromagnetic ordering: An RVB picture

Based on a Gutzwiller projected BCS wavefunction, it is shown that a local S=1/2 moment is present around a vacancy site (zinc impurity) in a form of staggered magnetic moments, which is a direct consequence of the short-ranged resonating-valence-bond (RVB) pairing in the spin background.

cond-mat.str-el↗