This article reviews the physics of high-temperature superconductors from the point of view of the doping of a Mott insulator. The basic electronic structure of cuprates is reviewed, emphasizing the physics of strong correlation and establishing the model of a doped Mott insulator as a starting point. A variety of experiments are discussed, focusing on the region of the phase diagram close to the Mott insulator (the underdoped region) where the behavior is most anomalous. The normal state in this region exhibits pseudogap phenomenon. In contrast, the quasiparticles in the superconducting state are well defined and behave according to theory. This review introduces Anderson's idea of the resonating valence bond and argues that it gives a qualitative account of the data. The importance of phase fluctuations is discussed, leading to a theory of the transition temperature, which is driven by phase fluctuations and the thermal excitation of quasiparticles. However, an argument is made that phase fluctuations can only explain pseudogap phenomenology over a limited temperature range, and some additional physics is needed to explain the onset of singlet formation at very high temperatures. A description of the numerical method of the projected wave function is presented, which turns out to be a very useful technique for implementing the strong correlation constraint and leads to a number of predictions which are in agreement with experiments. The remainder of the paper deals with an analytic treatment of the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}J$ model, with the goal of putting the resonating valence bond idea on a more formal footing. The slave boson is introduced to enforce the constraint againt double occupation and it is shown that the implementation of this local constraint leads naturally to gauge theories. This review follows the historical order by first examining the U(1) formulation of the gauge theory. Some inadequacies of this formulation for underdoping are discussed, leading to the SU(2) formulation. Here follows a rather thorough discussion of the role of gauge theory in describing the spin-liquid phase of the undoped Mott insulator. The difference between the high-energy gauge group in the formulation of the problem versus the low-energy gauge group, which is an emergent phenomenon, is emphasized. Several possible routes to deconfinement based on different emergent gauge groups are discussed, which leads to the physics of fractionalization and spin-charge separation. Next the extension of the SU(2) formulation to nonzero doping is described with a focus on a part of the mean-field phase diagram called the staggered flux liquid phase. It will be shown that inclusion of the gauge fluctuation provides a reasonable description of the pseudogap phase. It is emphasized that $d$-wave superconductivity can be considered as evolving from a stable U(1) spin liquid. These ideas are applied to the high-${T}_{c}$ cuprates, and their implications for the vortex structure and the phase diagram are discussed. A possible test of the topological structure of the pseudogap phase is described.

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Doping a Mott insulator: Physics of high-temperature superconductivity

The last decade witnessed significant progress in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and its applications. Today, ARPES experiments with 2-meV energy resolution and $0.2\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ angular resolution are a reality even for photoemission on solids. These technological advances and the improved sample quality have enabled ARPES to emerge as a leading tool in the investigation of the high-${T}_{c}$ superconductors. This paper reviews the most recent ARPES results on the cuprate superconductors and their insulating parent and sister compounds, with the purpose of providing an updated summary of the extensive literature. The low-energy excitations are discussed with emphasis on some of the most relevant issues, such as the Fermi surface and remnant Fermi surface, the superconducting gap, the pseudogap and $d$-wave-like dispersion, evidence of electronic inhomogeneity and nanoscale phase separation, the emergence of coherent quasiparticles through the superconducting transition, and many-body effects in the one-particle spectral function due to the interaction of the charge with magnetic and/or lattice degrees of freedom. Given the dynamic nature of the field, we chose to focus mainly on reviewing the experimental data, as on the experimental side a general consensus has been reached, whereas interpretations and related theoretical models can vary significantly. The first part of the paper introduces photoemission spectroscopy in the context of strongly interacting systems, along with an update on the state-of-the-art instrumentation. The second part provides an overview of the scientific issues relevant to the investigation of the low-energy electronic structure by ARPES. The rest of the paper is devoted to the experimental results from the cuprates, and the discussion is organized along conceptual lines: normal-state electronic structure, interlayer interaction, superconducting gap, coherent superconducting peak, pseudogap, electron self-energy, and collective modes. Within each topic, ARPES data from the various copper oxides are presented.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0208504.pdf

Angle-resolved photoemission studies of the cuprate superconductors

This article reviews the effort to understand the physics of high temperature superconductors from the point of view of doping a Mott insulator. The basic electronic structure of the cuprates is reviewed, emphasizing the physics of strong correlation and establishing the model of a doped Mott insulator as a starting point. A variety of experiments are discussed, focusing on the region of the phase diagram close to the Mott insulator (the underdoped region) where the behavior is most anomalous. We introduce Anderson's idea of the resonating valence bond (RVB) and argue that it gives a qualitative account of the data. The importance of phase fluctuation is discussed, leading to a theory of the transition temperature which is driven by phase fluctuation and thermal excitation of quasiparticles. We then describe the numerical method of projected wavefunction which turns out to be a very useful technique to implement the strong correlation constraint, and leads to a number of predictions which are in agreement with experiments. The remainder of the paper deals with an analytic treatment of the t-J model, with the goal of putting the RVB idea on a more formal footing. The slave-boson is introduced to enforce the constraint of no double occupation. The implementation of the local constraint leads naturally to gauge theories. We give a rather thorough discussion of the role of gauge theory in describing the spin liquid phase of the undoped Mott insulator. We next describe the extension of the SU(2) formulation to nonzero doping. We show that inclusion of gauge fluctuation provides a reasonable description of the pseudogap phase.

Doping a Mott Insulator: Physics of High Temperature Superconductivity

The authors study in detail the quantum mechanical model of $N$ Majorana fermions with random interactions of a few fermions at a time (Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model) in the large $N$ limit. At low energies, the system is strongly interacting and an emergent conformal symmetry develops. Performing technical calculations, the authors elucidate a number of properties of the model near the conformal point.

Remarks on the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

We present a review of the basic ideas and techniques of the spectral density functional theory which are currently used in electronic structure calculations of strongly{correlated materials where the one{electron description breaks down. We illustrate the method with several examples where interactions play a dominant role: systems near metal{insulator transition, systems near volume collapse transition, and systems with local moments.

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Electronic structure calculations with dynamical mean-field theory

We examine the spin-S quantum Heisenberg magnet with Gaussian-random, infinite-range exchange interactions. The quantum-disordered phase is accessed by generalizing to SU(M) symmetry and studying the large M limit. For large S the ground state is a spin glass, while quantum fluctuations produce a spin-fluid state for small S. The spin-fluid phase is found to be generically gapless---the average, zero temperature, local dynamic spin susceptibility obeys \ensuremath{\chi}\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}(\ensuremath{\omega})\ensuremath{\sim}ln(1/\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\Vert})+i(\ensuremath{\pi}/2)sgn(\ensuremath{\omega}) at low frequencies.

Gapless spin-fluid ground state in a random quantum Heisenberg magnet.

We present the general theory of clean, two-dimensional, quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets which are close to the zero-temperature quantum transition between ground states with and without long-range N\'eel order. While some of our discussion is more general, the bulk of our theory will be restricted to antiferromagnets in which the N\'eel order is described by a three-vector order parameter. For N\'eel-ordered states, ``nearly critical'' means that the ground-state spin stiffness, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$, satisfies ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$\ensuremath{\ll}J, where J is the nearest-neighbor exchange constant, while ``nearly critical'' quantum-disordered ground states have an energy gap, \ensuremath{\Delta}, towards excitations with spin 1, which satisfies \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\ll}J. The allowed temperatures, T, are also smaller than J, but no restrictions are placed on the values of ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$T/${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$ or ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$T/\ensuremath{\Delta}. Under these circumstances, we show that the wave vector and/or frequency-dependent uniform and staggered spin susceptibilities, and the specific heat, are completely universal functions of just three thermodynamic parameters. On the ordered side, these three parameters are ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$, the T=0 spin-wave velocity c, and the ground-state staggered moment ${\mathit{N}}_{0}$; previous works have noted the universal dependence of the susceptibilities on these three parameters only in the more restricted regime of ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$T\ensuremath{\ll}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\rho}}}_{\mathit{s}}$. On the disordered side the three thermodynamic parameters are \ensuremath{\Delta}, c, and the spin-1 quasiparticle residue scrA. Explicit results for the universal scaling functions are obtained by a 1/N expansion on the O(N) quantum nonlinear \ensuremath{\sigma} model, and by Monte Carlo simulations. These calculations lead to a variety of testable predictions for neutron scattering, NMR, and magnetization measurements. Our results are in good agreement with a number of numerical simulations and experiments on undoped and lightly doped ${\mathrm{La}}_{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$${\mathrm{Sr}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$${\mathrm{CuO}}_{4}$.

Theory of two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets with a nearly critical ground state.

The universal dynamic and static properties of two-dimensional antiferromagnets in the vicinity of a zero-temperature phase transition from long-range magnetic order to a quantum-disordered phase are studied. Random antiferromagnets with both N\'eel and spin-glass long-range magnetic order are considered. Explicit quantum-critical dynamic scaling functions are computed in a 1/N expansion to two-loop level for certain nonrandom, frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnets. Implications for neutron scattering experiments on the doped cuprates are noted.

Universal quantum-critical dynamics of two-dimensional antiferromagnets.

We consider quantum rotors or Ising spins in a transverse field on a d-dimensional lattice, with random, frustrating, short-range, exchange interactions. The quantum dynamics are associated with a finite moment of inertia for the rotors, and with the transverse field for the Ising spins. For a suitable distribution of exchange constants, these models display spin-glass and quantum paramagnet phases and a zero-temperature (T) quantum transition between them. An earlier exact solution for the critical properties of a model with infinite-range interactions cna be reproduced by minimization of a Landau effective-action functional for the model in finite d with short-range interactions. The functional is expressed in terms of a composite spin field which is bilocal in time. The mean-field phase diagram near the T=0 critical point is mapped out as a function of T, strength of the quantum coupling, and applied fields. The spin-glass phase has replica symmetry breaking; but, as in the classical Ising spin glass, the order parameter becomes replica symmetric as T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0. Next we examine the consequences of fluctuations about the mean field for the critical properties. Above d=8, and with certain restrictions on the values of the Landau couplings, we find that the transition is controlled by a Gaussian fixed point with mean-field critical exponents. For couplings not attracted by the Gaussian fixed point above d=8, and for all physical couplings below d=8, we find runaway renormalization-group flows to strong coupling. General scaling relations that should be valid even at the strong-coupling fixed point are proposed and compared with Monte Carlo simulations.

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Landau theory of quantum spin glasses of rotors and Ising spins

We examine a model of M-component quantum rotors coupled by Gaussian-distributed random, infinite-range exchange interactions. A complete solution is obtained at M=\ensuremath{\infty} in the spin-glass and quantum-disordered phases. The quantum phase transition separating them is found to possess logarithmic violations of scaling, with no further modifications to the leading critical behavior at any order in 1/M; this suggests that the critical properties of the transverse-field Ising model (believed to be identical to the M\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1 limit) are the same as those of the M=\ensuremath{\infty} quantum rotors.

Jinwu Ye

Papers

Gapless spin-fluid ground state in a random quantum Heisenberg magnet.

Theory of two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets with a nearly critical ground state.

Universal quantum-critical dynamics of two-dimensional antiferromagnets.

Landau theory of quantum spin glasses of rotors and Ising spins

Solvable spin glass of quantum rotors.