Normal Fermi Liquid Research Articles

Stable pair liquid phase in fermionic systems

We predict the existence of a pair-liquid phase in lattice fermion systems with finite-range attractive interactions. This exotic state competes on one side with a normal Fermi liquid of unpaired fermions and on the other side with a phase-separated state where all fermions are coupled into macroscopic clusters. We show that such a phase is absent in bosonic systems and therefore is protected by the exclusion principle. In contrast with zero-range attractive systems where clustering of more than two fermions is directly prohibited, here quantum statistics acts dynamically and in a more subtle way. Since a many-fermion wave function must have nodes, the cluster formation threshold is larger than the pair formation threshold. By directly solving a four-body Schroedinger equation on one- and two-dimensional lattices, we map the boundaries of pair stability. The pair liquid phase should be observable in cold atom systems. We also discuss implications for the preformed-pair mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity.

Bonding and Electronic Nature of the Anionic Framework in LaPd3S4

Double Dirac materials are a topological phase of matter in which a non-symmorphic symmetry enforces greater electronic degeneracy than normally expected – up to eightfold. The cubic palladium bronzes NaPd3O4 and LaPd3S4 are built of Pd3X4 (X = O, S) anionic frameworks that are ionically bonded to A cations (A = Na, La). These materials were recently identified computationally as harboring eightfold fermions. Here we report the preparation of single crystals and electronic properties of LaPd3S4. Measurements down to T = 0.45 K and in magnetic fields up to μ0H = 65 T are consistent with normal Fermi liquid physics of a Dirac metal in the presence of dilute magnetic impurities. This interpretation is further confirmed by analysis of specific heat, magnetization measurements and comparison to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Through a bonding analysis of the DFT electronic structure of NaPd3O4 and LaPd3S4, we identify the origin of the stability of the anionic Pd3X4 framework at higher electron counts for X = S than X = O, and propose chemical tuning strategies to enable shifting the 8-fold fermion points to the Fermi level.

Theory of disordered superconductors with applications to nonlinear current response

Abstract I present a review of the theory and basic equations for charge transport in superconducting alloys starting from the Keldysh formulation of the quasiclassical transport equations developed by Eilenberger, Larkin and Ovchinnikov, and Eliashberg. This formulation is the natural extension of Landau’s theory of normal Fermi liquids to the superconducting state of strongly correlated metals. For dirty metals the transport equations reduce to equations for charge diffusion, with the current response given by the Drude conductivity at low temperatures. The extension of the diffusion equation for the charge and current response of a strongly disordered normal metal to the superconducting state yields Usadel’s equations for the nonequilibrium quasiclassical Keldysh propagator. The conditions for the applicability of the Usadel equations are discussed, the pair-breaking effect of disorder on the current response, including the nonlinear current response to an electromagnetic field in the dirty limit, τ ≪ ℏ/Δ, are reported. The same nonlinearity is shown to lead to source currents for photon generation and nonlinear Kerr rotation driven by the nonlinear response to excitation of the superconductor by a multi-mode electromagnetic field. The potential relevance of the nonlinear source currents to superconducting radio-frequency cavities as detectors of axion-like dark matter candidates is briefly discussed.

Extremely Overdoped Superconducting Cuprates via High Pressure Oxygenation Methods

Within the cuprate constellation, one fixed star has been the superconducting dome in the quantum phase diagram of transition temperature vs. the excess charge on the Cu in the CuO2-planes, p, resulting from O-doping or cation substitution. However, a more extensive search of the literature shows that the loss of the superconductivity in favor of a normal Fermi liquid on the overdoped side should not be assumed. Many experimental results from cuprates prepared by high-pressure oxygenation show Tc converging to a fixed value or continuing to slowly increase past the upper limit of the dome of p = 0.26–0.27, up to the maximum amounts of excess oxygen corresponding to p values of 0.3 to > 0.6. These reports have been met with disinterest or disregard. Our review shows that dome-breaking trends for Tc are, in fact, the result of careful, accurate experimental work on a large number of compounds. This behavior most likely mandates a revision of the theoretical basis for high-temperature superconductivity. That excess O atoms located in specific, metastable sites in the crystal, attainable only with extreme O chemical activity under HPO conditions, cause such a radical extension of the superconductivity points to a much more substantial role for the lattice in terms of internal chemistry and bonding.

Spin drag and fast response in a quantum mixture of atomic gases

By applying a sudden perturbation to one of the components of a mixture of two quantum fluids, we explore the effect on the motion of the second component on a short time scale. By implementing perturbation theory, we prove that for short times the response of the second component is fixed by the energy weighted moment of the crossed dynamic structure factor (crossed f-sum rule). We also show that by properly monitoring the time duration of the perturbation it is possible to identify peculiar fast spin drag regimes, which are sensitive to the interaction effects in the Hamiltonian. Special focus is given to the case of coherently coupled Bose-Einstein condensates, interacting Bose mixtures exhibiting the Andreev-Bashkin effect, normal Fermi liquids and the polaron problem. The relevant excitations of the system contributing to the spin drag effect are identified and the contribution of the low frequency gapless excitations to the f-sum rule in the density and spin channels is explicitly calculated employing the proper macroscopic dynamic theories. Both spatially periodic and Galilean boost perturbations are considered.

Electronic Structure Correspondence of Singlet-Triplet Scale Separation in Strained Sr2RuO4

At a temperature of roughly 1 K, Sr2RuO4 undergoes a transition from a normal Fermi liquid to a superconducting phase. Even while the former is relatively simple and well understood, the superconducting state has not even been understood after 25 years of study. More recently, it has been found that critical temperatures can be enhanced by the application of uniaxial strain, up to a critical strain, after which it falls off. In this work, we take an “instability” approach and seek divergences in susceptibilities. This provides an unbiased way to distinguish tendencies to competing ground states. We show that in the unstrained compound, the singlet and triplet instabilities of the normal Fermi liquid phase are closely spaced. Under uniaxial strain, electrons residing on all orbitals contributing to the Fermiology become more coherent, while the electrons of the Ru-dxy character become heavier, and the electrons of the Ru-dxz,yz characters become lighter. In the process, Im χ(q,ω) increases rapidly around q = (0.3,0.3,0)2π/a and q = (0.5,0.25,0)2π/a, while it gets suppressed at all other commensurate vectors, in particular at q = 0, which is essential for spin-triplet superconductivity. We observe that the magnetic anisotropy under strain drops smoothly, which is concomitant with the increment in singlet instability. Thus, the triplet superconducting instability remains the lagging instability of the system, and the singlet instability enhances under strain, leading to a large energy-scale separation between these competing instabilities. However, since this happens even without spin-orbit coupling, we believe it is primarily the enhancement in the spin fluctuation glue around quasi-anti-ferromagnetic vectors that drives the Cooper pairing instead of the magnetic anisotropy. At large strain, an instability to a spin density wave overtakes the superconducting one. The analysis relies on a high-fidelity, ab initio description of the one-particle properties and two-particle susceptibilities, based on the quasiparticle self-consistent GW approximation augmented by dynamical mean field theory. This approach is described and its high fidelity confirmed by comparing to observed one- and two-particle properties.

Pseudogap regime of a strongly interacting two-dimensional Fermi gas with and without confinement-induced effective range of interactions

We investigate theoretically the many-body pairing of a strongly correlated two-dimensional Fermi gas with and without negative confinement-induced effective range. Using a strong-coupling effective field theory in the normal state, we show that the specific heat at constant volume can be used as a characteristic indicator of the crossover from the normal Fermi liquid to the pseudogap state in two dimensions. We calculate the pseudogap formation temperature through the specific heat at constant volume, examining the role of a negative confinement-induced effective range on many-body pairing above the superfluid transition. We compare our results with and without effective range to the recent experimental measurement performed with radio-frequency spectroscopy in Murthy et al.[Science359, 452-455 (2018)]. Although a good qualitative agreement is found, we are not able to discriminate the effect of the confinement-induced effect range in the experimental data.

Emergent Spacetime and Gravitational Nieh-Yan Anomaly in Chiral p+ip Weyl Superfluids and Superconductors.

Momentum transport is anomalous in chiral p+ip superfluids and superconductors in the presence of textures and superflow. Using the gradient expansion of the semiclassical approximation, we show how gauge and Galilean symmetries induce an emergent curved spacetime with torsion and curvature for the quasirelativistic low-energy Majorana-Weyl quasiparticles. We explicitly show the emergence of the spin connection and curvature, in addition to torsion, using the superfluid hydrodynamics. The background constitutes an emergent quasirelativistic Riemann-Cartan spacetime for the Weyl quasiparticles which satisfy the conservation laws associated with local Lorentz symmetry restricted to the plane of uniaxial anisotropy of the superfluid (or superconductor). Moreover, we show that the anomalous Galilean momentum conservation is a consequence of the gravitational Nieh-Yan (NY) chiral anomaly the Weyl fermions experience on the background geometry. Notably, the NY anomaly coefficient features a nonuniversal ultraviolet cutoff scale Λ, with canonical dimensions of momentum. Comparison of the anomaly equation and the hydrodynamic equations suggests that the value of the cutoff parameter Λ is determined by the normal state Fermi liquid and nonrelativistic uniaxial symmetry of the p-wave superfluid or superconductor.

Flat Bands and Salient Experimental Features Supportingthe Fermion Condensation Theory of Strongly Correlated Fermi Systems

The physics of strongly correlated Fermi systems, being the mainstream topic for more than half a century, still remains elusive. Recent advancements in experimental techniques permit to collect important data, which, in turn, allow us to make the conclusive statements about the underlying physics of strongly correlated Fermi systems. Such systems are close to a special quantum critical point represented by topological fermion-condensation quantum phase transition which separates normal Fermi liquid and that with a fermion condensate, forming flat bands. Our review paper considers recent exciting experimental observations of universal scattering rate related to linear temperature dependence of resistivity in a large number of strongly correlated Fermi systems as well as normal metals. We show that the observed scattering rate is explained by the emergence of flat bands, while the so-called Planckian limit occurs accidentally since the normal metals exhibit the same scattering rate behavior. We also analyze recent challenging experimental data on tunneling differential conductivity collected under the application of magnetic field on the twisted graphene and the archetypical heavy fermion metal YbRh $${}_{2}$$ Si $${}_{2}$$ . Also we describe recent empirical observations of scaling properties related to universal linear-temperature resistivity for a large number of strongly correlated high-temperature superconductors. We show that these observations support the fermion condensation theory. Our theoretical results are in good agreement with corps of different and seemingly unrelated experimental facts. They show that the fermion-condensation quantum phase transition is an intrinsic property of strongly correlated Fermi systems and can be viewed as the universal agent explaining their core physics.

Local lattice distortions and dynamics in extremely overdoped superconducting YSr2Cu2.75Mo0.25O7.54

A common characteristic of many "overdoped" cuprates prepared with high-pressure oxygen is Tc values ≥ 50 K that often exceed that of optimally doped parent compounds, despite O stoichiometries that place the materials at the edge or outside of the conventional boundary between superconducting and normal Fermi liquid states. X-ray absorption fine-structure (XAFS) measurements at 52 K on samples of high-pressure oxygen (HPO) YSr2Cu2.75Mo0.25O7.54, Tc = 84 K show that the Mo is in the (VI) valence in an unusually undistorted octahedral geometry with predominantly Mo neighbors that is consistent with its assigned substitution for Cu in the chain sites of the structure. Perturbations of the Cu environments are minimal, although the Cu X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) differs from that in other cuprates. The primary deviation from the crystal structure is therefore nanophase separation into Mo- and Cu-enriched domains. There are, however, indications that the dynamical attributes of the structure are altered relative to YBa2Cu3O7, including a shift of the Cu-apical O two-site distribution from the chain to the plane Cu sites. Another effect that would influence Tc is the possibility of multiple bands at the Fermi surface caused by the presence of the second phase and the lowering of the Fermi level.

Renormalizations in unconventional superconducting states born of normal and singular Fermi liquids

The density of low-energy particle-hole excitations is nonanalytic in a singular Fermi liquid, but it is altered on entering a superconducting state in which, in the pure limit, it vanishes asymptotically at the chemical potential and in general is analytic. The single-particle excitations in the superconducting states are then quasiparticles so that a form of Landau theory may be constructed for thermodynamic and transport properties in the superconducting state. In this theory, the renormalization of measurable properties due to quasiparticle interactions, such as specific heat, compressibility, magnetic susceptibility, superfluid density, etc., changes in a temperature dependent fashion from the noninteracting theory. This is illustrated by showing the renormalization of these quantities and the relation between the parameters introduced to account for their temperature dependence. When the renormalizations in the normal state are large or singular, temperature dependence of properties in the superconducting states are then in general not useful for identifying the nodal character or symmetry of the superconducting state except for measurements at very low temperatures, the upper limits of which are specified. The results obtained are expected to be useful in interpreting the experimental results for the temperature dependence of various properties in the superconducting state born of singular Fermi liquids.

Zero-sound condensate in a Fermi liquid

We consider a normal Fermi liquid with a local scalar interaction given by the Landau parameter f0. The system becomes unstable for f0 < −1 against a growth of scalar-mode excitations (Pomeranchuk instability). We show that the instability may be tamed by the formation of a static Bose condensate of the scalar modes. We study a possible reconstruction of the isospin-symmetric nuclear matter owing to the appearance of the condensate. Possibility of a novel metastable state at subnuclear densities is demonstrated.

Luttinger theorem and imbalanced Fermi systems

The proof of the Luttinger theorem, which was originally given for a normal Fermi liquid with equal spin populations formally described by the exact many-body theory at zero temperature, is here extended to an approximate theory given in terms of a "conserving" approximation also with spin imbalanced populations. The need for this extended proof, whose underlying assumptions are here spelled out in detail, stems from the recent interest in superfluid trapped Fermi atoms with attractive inter-particle interaction, for which the difference between two spin populations can be made large enough that superfluidity is destroyed and the system remains normal even at zero temperature. In this context, we will demonstrate the validity of the Luttinger theorem separately for the two spin populations for any "$\Phi$-derivable" approximation, and illustrate it in particular for the self-consistent $t$-matrix approximation.

Scalar quanta in Fermi liquids: Zero sounds, instabilities, Bose condensation, and a metastable state in dilute nuclear matter

Spectrum of bosonic scalar-mode excitations in a normal Fermi liquid with a local scalar interaction is investigated for various values and momentum dependence of the scalar Landau parameter $f_0$ in the particle-hole channel. For $f_0 >0$ the conditions are found when the phase velocity on the spectrum of the zero sound acquires a minimum at a non-zero momentum. For $-1<f_0 <0$ there are only damped excitations, and for $f_0<-1$ the spectrum becomes unstable against a growth of scalar-mode excitations. An effective Lagrangian for the scalar excitation modes is derived after performing a bosonization procedure. We demonstrate that the instability may be tamed by the formation of a static Bose condensate of the scalar modes. The condensation may occur in a homogeneous or inhomogeneous state relying on the momentum dependence of the scalar Landau parameter. We show that in the isospin-symmetric nuclear matter there may appear a metastable state at a subsaturation nuclear density owing to the condensate. Then we consider a possibility of the condensation of the zero-sound-like excitations in a state with a non-zero momentum in Fermi liquids moving with overcritical velocities, provided an appropriate momentum dependence of the Landau parameter $f_0 (k)>0$. We also argue that in peripheral heavy-ion collisions the Pomeranchuk instability may occur already for $f_0 >-1$.

Magnetic, specific heat and electrical transport properties of Frank–Kasper cage compounds RTM2Al20 [R = Eu, Gd and La; TM = V, Ti

Single crystals of Frank–Kasper compounds RTM2Al20 (R = Eu, Gd and La; TM = V and Ti) were grown by self-flux method and their physical properties were investigated through magnetization (M), magnetic susceptibility (χ), specific heat (CP) and electrical resistivity (ρ) measurements. Powder x-ray diffraction studies and structural analysis showed that these compounds crystallize in the cubic crystal structure with the space group . The magnetic susceptibility for the compounds EuTi2Al20 and GdTi2Al20 showed a sudden jump below the Néel temperature TN indicative of plausible double magnetic transition. Specific heat (CP) and electrical resistivity (ρ) measurements also confirm the first-order magnetic transition (FOMT) and possible double magnetic transitions. Temperature variation of heat capacity showed a sharp phase transition and huge CP value for the (Eu/Gd)Ti2Al20 compounds’ full width at half-maximum (FWHM) (<0.2 K) which is reminiscent of a first-order phase transition and a unique attribute among RTM2Al20 compounds. In contrast, linear variation of CP is observed in the ordered state for (Eu/Gd)V2Al20 compounds suggesting a λ-type transition. We observed clear anomaly between heating and cooling cycle in temperature-time relaxation curve for the compounds GdTi2Al20 (2.38 K) and EuTi2Al20 (3.2 K) which is indicating a thermal arrest due to the latent heat. The temperature variation of Smag for GdTi2Al20 saturates to a value while the other magnetic systems exhibited still lower entropy saturation values in the high temperature limit. versus T plot showed a maximum near 27 K for all the compounds indicating the presence of low frequency Einstein modes of vibrations. Resistivity measurements showed that all the samples behave as normal Fermi liquid type compounds and due to electron–phonon scattering follows Bloch–Grüneisen–Mott relation in the paramagnetic region.

Quantum spin transport and dynamics through a ferromagnetic/normal metal junction

We study the spin transport in the low temperature regime (often referred to as the precession-dominated regime) between a ferromagnetic Fermi liquid (FFL) and a normal metal metallic Fermi liquid (NFL), also known as the F/N junction, which is considered as one of the most basic spintronic devices. In particular, we explore the propagation of spin waves and transport of magnetization through the interface of the F/N junction where nonequilibrium spin polarization is created on the normal metal side of the junction by electrical spin injection. We calculate the probable spin wave modes in the precession-dominated regime on both sides of the junction especially on the NFL side where the system is out of equilibrium. Proper boundary conditions at the interface are introduced to establish the transport of the spin properties through the F/N junction. A possible transmission conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) experiment is suggested on the F/N junction to see if the predicted spin wave modes could indeed propagate through the junction. Potential applications based on this novel spin transport feature of the F/N junction are proposed in the end.

Controllable magnetic correlation between two impurities by spin-orbit coupling in graphene.

Two magnetic impurities on the edge of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon strongly interact with each other via indirect coupling, which can be mediated by conducting carriers. By means of Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, we find that the spin-orbit coupling λ and the chemical potential μ in system can be used to drive the transition of local-spin exchange from ferromagnetism to anti-ferromagnetism. Since the tunable ranges for λ and μ in graphene are experimentally reachable, we thus open the possibilities for its device application. The symmetry in spatial distribution is broken by the vertical and the transversal spin-spin correlations due to the effect of spin-orbit coupling, leading to the spatial anisotropy of spin exchange, which distinguish our findings from the case in normal Fermi liquid.

Iterative backflow renormalization procedure for many-body ground-state wave functions of strongly interacting normal Fermi liquids

We show how a ground state trial wavefunction of a Fermi liquid can be systematically improved introducing a sequence of renormalized coordinates through an iterative backflow transformation. We apply this scheme to calculate the ground state energy of liquid $^3$He in two dimensions at freezing density using variational and fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo. Comparing with exact transient estimate results for systems with small number of particles, we find that variance extrapolations provide accurate results for the true ground state together with stringent lower bounds. For larger systems these bounds can in turn be used to quantify the systematic bias of fixed-node calculations. These wave functions are size consistent and the scaling of their computational complexity with the number of particles is the same as for standard backflow wave functions.

Neutral-current interactions of low-energy neutrinos in dense neutron matter

We report the results of a calculation of the response of cold neutron matter to neutral-current interactions with low energy neutrinos, carried out using an effective interaction and effective operators consistently derived within the formalism of Correlated Basis Functions. The neutrino mean free path obtained from the calculated responses turns out to be strongly affected by both short and long range correlations, leading to a sizable increase with respect to the prediction of the Fermi gas model. The consistency between the proposed approach and Landau theory of normal Fermi liquids also has been investigated, using a set of Landau parameters obtained from the matrix elements of the effective interaction.

Modifications to the pulsar kick velocity due to magnetic interactions in dense plasma

In this work we calculate the pulsar kick velocity of a magnetized neutron star (NS) composed of a degenerate quark matter core with non-Fermi liquid (NFL) correction. Both the leading order (LO) and next to LO (NLO) corrections to the kick velocity have been incorporated. In addition, the NFL corrections to the specific heat of magnetized quark matter have been presented. This has been taken into account to calculate the kick velocity of the NS. The results show a significant departure from the normal Fermi liquid estimates. The relation between radius and temperature has been shown with a kick velocity of 100 km s−1 with and without NFL corrections.