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Deconfined metallic quantum criticality: A U(2) gauge-theoretic approach

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

L. Zou
Debanjan Chowdhury

Abstract

We discuss a new class of quantum phase transitions - deconfined Mott transition (DMT) - that describe a continuous transition between a Fermi liquid metal with a generic electronic Fermi surface and an electrical insulator without Fermi surfaces of emergent neutral excitations. We construct a unified U(2) gauge theory to describe a variety of metallic and insulating phases, which include Fermi liquids, fractionalized Fermi liquids (FL∗), conventional insulators, and quantum spin liquids, as well as the quantum phase transitions between them. Using the DMT as a basic building block, we propose a distinct quantum phase transition - deconfined metal-metal transition (DM2T) - that describes a continuous transition between two metallic phases, accompanied by a jump in the size of their electronic Fermi surfaces (also dubbed a 'Fermi transition'). We study these new classes of deconfined metallic quantum critical points using a renormalization group framework at the leading nontrivial order in a controlled expansion and comment on the various interesting scenarios that can emerge going beyond this leading order calculation. We also study a U(1)×U(1) gauge theory that shares a number of similarities with the U(2) gauge theory and sheds important light on many phenomena related to DMT, DM2T, and quantum spin liquids. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

Date Published

Journal

Physical Review Research

Volume

2

Issue

2

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85115905912&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevResearch.2.023344&partnerID=40&md5=f33becff861c28cc9d36e36a1f76642d

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023344

Group (Lab)

Debanjan Chowdhury Group

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