Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: A grand challenge in many-body quantum physics is to explain the apparent connection between quantum criticality and high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates and similar systems, such as the iron pnictides and chalcogenides. Here we argue that the quantum-critical regime plays an essential role in activating a strong-pairing mechanism: although pairing bosons create a symmetry-breaking instability which suppresses pairing, the combination of these broken-symmetry states within the critical regime can restore this symmetry for the paired quasiparticles. This condition is shown to be met within a large- U ansatz. A hidden quantum phase transition then arises between a Fermi-liquid and a non–Fermi-liquid broken-symmetry striped state, and a critical regime in which the broken-symmetry states are combined.
Source: Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Authors: Josef Ashkenazi, Neil F. Johnson
Institution: University of Miami
Language: English
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2092905435