Theory of a continuous stripe melting transition in a two dimensional metal: Possible application to cuprates

Abstract

We develop a concrete theory of continuous stripe melting quantum phase transitions in two dimensional metals and the associated Fermi surface reconstruction. Such phase transitions are strongly coupled but yet theoretically tractable in situations where the stripe ordering is destroyed by proliferating doubled dislocations of the charge stripe order. The resulting non-Landau quantum critical point (QCP) has strong stripe fluctuations which we show decouple dynamically from the Fermi surface even though static stripe ordering reconstructs the Fermi surface. We discuss connections to various stripe phenomena in the cuprates. We point out several puzzling aspects of old experimental results (Aeppli et al, Science 1997) on singular stripe fluctuations in the cuprates, and provide a possible explanation within our theory. These results may thus have been the first observation of non-Landau quantum criticality in an experiment.

4.5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (7)

• "Deconfined" quantum critical points
• Evidence for deconfined quantum criticality in a two-dimensional Heisenberg model with four-spin interactions
• Lattice symmetry breaking in cuprate superconductors: Stripes, nematics, and superconductivity
• Quantum phase transitions of metals in two spatial dimensions: II. Spin density wave order
• Charge $4e$ superconductivity from pair density wave order in certain high temperature superconductors
• Universal Signatures of Fractionalized Quantum Critical Points
• Strongly coupled quantum criticality with a Fermi surface in two dimensions: fractionalization of spin and charge collective modes

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Gauge theory for the cuprates near optimal doping
• Bad Metals from Fluctuating Density Waves
• Universal relaxation in a holographic metallic density wave phase
• Colloquium: Hydrodynamics and holography of charge density wave phases
• Symmetry enforced fractonicity and $2d$ quantum crystal melting
• Spin density wave order, topological order, and Fermi surface reconstruction
• Stripe melting and quantum criticality in correlated metals
• Spin and pair density wave glasses
• Density wave probes cuprate quantum phase transition
• Unconventional electronic order in a codoped high-Tc superconductor
• Three-dimensional Abelian and non-Abelian gauge Higgs theories
• Bilocal quantum criticality
• Electronic Liquid Crystal Physics of Underdoped Cuprates
• Strange metal and Fermi arcs from disordering spin stripes