FUNCTIONAL BOSONIZATION OF NONRELATIVISTIC FERMIONS IN 2+1 DIMENSIONS

Abstract

We analyze the universality of the bosonization rules in nonrelativistic fermionic systems in (2+1)d. We show that, in the case of linear fermionic dispersion relations, a general fermionic theory can be mapped into a gauge theory in such a way that the fermionic density maps into a magnetic flux and the fermionic current maps into a transverse electric field. These are universal rules in the sense that they remain valid whatever the interaction considered. We also show that these rules are universal in the case of nonlinear dispersion relations provided we consider only density–density interactions. We apply the functional bosonization formalism to a nonrelativistic and nonlocal massive Thirring-like model and evaluate the spectrum of collective excitations in several limits. In the large mass limit, we are able to exactly calculate this spectrum for arbitrary density–density and current–current interactions. We also analyze the massless case and show that it has no collective excitations for any density–density potential in the Gaussian approximation. Moreover, the presence of current interactions may induce a gapless mode with a linear dispersion relation.