Insulators and metals with topological order and discrete symmetry breaking

Abstract

Numerous experiments have reported discrete symmetry breaking in the high temperature pseudogap phase of the hole-doped cuprates, including breaking of one or more of lattice rotation, inversion, or time-reversal symmetries. In the absence of translational symmetry breaking or topological order, these conventional order parameters cannot explain the gap in the charged fermion excitation spectrum in the anti-nodal region. Zhao et al. (1601.01688) and Jeong et al. (arXiv:1701.06485) have also reported inversion and time-reversal symmetry breaking in insulating Sr2IrO4 similar to that in the metallic cuprates, but co-existing with Neel order. We extend an earlier theory of topological order in insulators and metals, in which the topological order combines naturally with the breaking of these conventional discrete symmetries. We find translationally-invariant states with topological order co-existing with both Ising-nematic order and spontaneous charge currents. The link between the discrete broken symmetries and the topological-order-induced pseudogap explains why the broken symmetries do not survive in the confining phases without a pseudogap at large doping. Our theory also connects to the O(3) non-linear sigma model and CP1 descriptions of quantum fluctuations of the Neel order. In this framework, the optimal doping criticality of the cuprates is primarily associated with the loss of topological order.

31 pages, 4 figures; (v2) added figure and clarifications

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• Topological order, emergent gauge fields, and Fermi surface reconstruction
• Thermodynamic signatures of quantum criticality in cuprates
• The 2021 Quantum Materials Roadmap
• Triangular antiferromagnetism on the honeycomb lattice of twisted bilayer graphene
• Topological order in the pseudogap metal
• Quark-hadron continuity beyond Ginzburg-Landau paradigm
• Thermal Hall effect in square-lattice spin liquids: A Schwinger boson mean-field study
• Intertwining topological order and broken symmetry in a theory of fluctuating spin density waves
• Normal state specific heat in the cuprates La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$ and Bi${}_{2+y}$Sr${}_{2-x-y}$La${}_x$CuO${}_{6+\delta }$ near the critical point of the pseudogap phase
• Fermi Surface reconstruction and anomalous low temperature resistivity in electron-doped La2-xCexCuO4
• Loop currents in quantum matter
• Orbital currents in insulating and doped antiferromagnets
• Fermionic spinon theory of square lattice spin liquids near the Néel state
• Orientation of the intra-unit-cell magnetic moment in the high-Tc superconductor HgBa2CuO${}_{4+\delta }$
• Thermal and electrical transport in metals and superconductors across antiferromagnetic and topological quantum transitions
• Spin-orbit-enhanced magnetic surface second-harmonic generation in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$
• Effective gauge theories of superfluidity with topological order
• Loop Currents in Two-leg Ladder Cuprates
• Hidden Magnetic Texture in the Pseudogap Phase of High-Tc $YB{a}_{2}C{u}_3{O}_{6.6}$
• Evidence for Intra-Unit Cell Magnetism in Superconducting Cuprates: a Technical Assessment
• Orbital current signature using neutron diffraction