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Intertwining Topological Order and Broken Symmetry in a Theory of Fluctuating Spin-Density Waves
Shubhayu Chatterjee1, Subir Sachdev1,2, Mathias S Scheurer1
1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
The pseudogap metal phase of the hole-doped cuprate superconductors has two seemingly unrelated characteristics: a gap in the electronic spectrum in the "antinodal" region of the square lattice Brillouin zone and discrete broken symmetries. We present a SU(2) gauge theory of quantum fluctuations of magnetically ordered states which appear in a classical theory of square lattice antiferromagnets, in a spin-density wave mean field theory of the square lattice Hubbard model, and in a CP^{1} theory of spinons. This theory leads to metals with an antinodal gap and topological order which intertwines with the observed broken symmetries.
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