Optical Conductivity and Pseudo-Momentum Conservation in Anisotropic Fermi Liquids

Abstract

Umklapp scattering determines the conductivity of clean metals. In typical quasi one-dimensional Fermi liquids with an open Fermi surface, certain pseudo-momenta do not decay by 2-particle collisions even in situations where Umklapp scattering relaxes the momentum of the quasi particles efficiently. Due to this approximate conservation of pseudo-momentum, a certain fraction of the electrical current decays very slowly and a well-pronounced low-frequency peak emerges in the optical conductivity. We develop simple criteria to determine under what conditions approximate pseudo-momentum conservation is relevant and calculate within in Fermi liquid theory the weights of the corresponding low-frequency peaks and the temperature dependence of the various relevant decay rates. Based on these considerations, we obtain a qualitative picture of the frequency and temperature dependence of the optical conductivity of an anisotropic Fermi liquid.

15 pages, dedicated to Peter Woelfle on the occasion of his 60th birthday