Probing the Gauge Structure of high-temperature superconductors

Abstract

We suggest that a spin-charge separating ansatz, leading to non-Abelian $SU(2)\otimes U_S(1)$ gauge symmetries in doped antiferromagnets, proposed earlier as a way of describing Kosterlitz-Thouless superconducting gaps at the nodes of the gap of d-wave (high-T_c) superconductors, may also lead to a pseudogap phase, characterised by the formation of (non-superconducting) pairing and the absence of phase coherence. The crucial assumption is again the presence of electrically charged Dirac fermionic excitations (holons) about the points of the (putative) fermi surface in the pertinent phase of the superconductor. We present arguments in support of the rôle of non-perturbative effects (instantons) on the onset of the pseudogap phase. As a means of probing such gauge interactions experimentally, we perform a study of the scaling of the thermal conductivity with an externally-applied magnetic field, in certain effective models involving gauge and/or four-fermion (contact) interactions.

27 pages LATEX, six figures incorporated (minor typos and cosmetic changes)

References in corpus (5)

• Nodal Liquid Theory of the Pseudo-Gap Phase of High-Tc Superconductors
• Gauge-theory approach to planar doped antiferromagnets and external magnetic fields
• Dynamical Gauge Symmetry Breaking and Superconductivity in three-dimensional systems
• N=1 Supersymmetric Spin-Charge Separation in effective gauge theories of planar magnetic superconductors
• $U(1)\times SU(2)$ gauge theory of underdoped cuprate superconductors

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• Radiatively-induced Magnetic moment in four-dimensional anisotropic QED in an external magnetic field