Signatures of the nematic ordering transitions in the thermal conductivity of d-wave superconductors

Abstract

We study experimental signatures of the Ising nematic quantum phase transition in d-wave superconductors, associated with the change of lattice symmetry from tetragonal to orthorhombic in the superconducting state. The characteristic feature of this transition is that the ratio between the Fermi velocity $v_F$ and gap velocity $v_{\Delta }$ flows to a maximally anisotropic fixed point, i.e. the renormalization group fixed point is situated at (v_Δ/v_F)^*=0$. Our main point is that the logarithmic approach to this fixed point has visible signatures in the thermal transport. The analysis of the quasiparticle contribution to the thermal transport is carried out in the framework of a kinetic approach, which shows that the thermal conductivity is enhanced near the nematic critical point. Another aspect of our study is the interplay of dilute disorder and electronic interactions in the measured thermal transport coefficients.

15 pages, 4 figures. revised version as accepted by Phys. Rev. B, added a figure and expanded discussion

References in corpus (12)

• Theory of the Nernst effect near quantum phase transitions in condensed matter, and in dyonic black holes
• Weak magnetism and non-Fermi liquids near heavy-fermion critical points
• Electronic liquid crystal state in the high-temperature superconductor YBCO(6.45)
• Formation of a Nematic Fluid at High Fields in Sr3Ru2O7
• Quantum critical transport in clean graphene
• Quantum-critical relativistic magnetotransport in graphene
• Renormalization group theory of nematic ordering in d-wave superconductors
• Theory of the nodal nematic quantum phase transition in superconductors
• Thermal conductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas with Coulomb interaction
• Theory of the pairbreaking superconductor-metal transition in nanowires
• Low temperature quasiparticle transport in a d-wave superconductor with coexisting charge order
• Role of the impurity-potential range in disordered d-wave superconductors

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The quasi-normal modes of quantum criticality
• Anomalous Scaling of the Penetration Depth in Nodal Superconductors
• Velocity renormalization of nodal quasiparticles in d-wave superconductors
• Two-loop disorder effects on the nematic quantum criticality in $d$-wave superconductors
• Quantum criticality of fermion velocities and critical temperature nearby a putative quantum phase transition in the $d$-wave superconductors
• Unconventional non-Fermi liquid state caused by nematic criticality in cuprates
• Thermal Transport in Superconductors with coexisting Spin Density Wave Order
• Renormalization of fermion velocity in finite temperature QED_{3}