Fermionic quantum criticality and the fractal nodal surface

Abstract

The complete lack of theoretical understanding of the quantum critical states found in the heavy fermion metals and the normal states of the high-T${}_c$ superconductors is routed in deep fundamental problem of condensed matter physics: the infamous minus signs associated with Fermi-Dirac statistics render the path integral non-probabilistic and do not allow to establish a connection with critical phenomena in classical systems. Using Ceperley's constrained path-integral formalism we demonstrate that the workings of scale invariance and Fermi-Dirac statistics can be reconciled. The latter is self-consistently translated into a geometrical constraint structure. We prove that this "nodal hypersurface" encodes the scales of the Fermi liquid and turns fractal when the system becomes quantum critical. To illustrate this we calculate nodal surfaces and electron momentum distributions of Feynman backflow wave functions and indeed find that with increasing backflow strength the quasiparticle mass gradually increases, to diverge when the nodal structure becomes fractal. Such a collapse of a Fermi liquid at a critical point has been observed in the heavy-fermion intermetallics in a spectacular fashion.

14 pages, 6 figures

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