Spontaneous breaking of four-fold rotational symmetry in two-dimensional electron systems as a topological phase transition

Abstract

Motivated by recent observations of $C_4$ symmetry breaking in strongly correlated two-dimensional electron systems on a square lattice, we analyze this phenomenon within an extended Fermi liquid approach. It is found that the symmetry violation is triggered by a continuous topological phase transition associated with exchange of antiferromagnetic fluctuations. In contrast to predictions of mean-field theory, the structure of a part of the single-particle spectrum violating $C_4$ symmetry is found to be highly anisotropic, with a peak located in the vicinity of saddle points.

7 pages, 3 figures; extended version, added figure

References in corpus (8)

• Nematic Fermi Fluids in Condensed Matter Physics
• Broken rotational symmetry in the pseudogap phase of a high-Tc superconductor
• Electronic liquid crystal state in the high-temperature superconductor YBCO(6.45)
• Polar Kerr Effect Measurements of YBa2Cu3O6+x: Evidence for Broken Symmetry Near the Pseudogap Temperature
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• Effective theory of Fermi pockets in fluctuating antiferromagnets
• Influence of Thermal Fluctuations of Spin Density Wave Order Parameter on the Quasiparticle Spectral Function

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Adaptation of the Landau-Migdal Quasiparticle Pattern to Strongly Correlated Fermi Systems
• Raman scattering near a d-wave Pomeranchuk instability
• Mean-field theory on a coupled system of ferromagnetism and electronic nematic order