• DOI:10.1073/pnas.1620651114
• Corpus ID: 4969109

Superconductivity and non-Fermi liquid behavior near a nematic quantum critical point

@article{Lederer2016SuperconductivityAN,
  title={Superconductivity and non-Fermi liquid behavior near a nematic quantum critical point},
  author={Samuel Lederer and Yoni Schattner and Erez Berg and Steven A. Kivelson},
  journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  year={2016},
  volume={114},
  pages={4905 - 4910}
}

• S. Lederer, Y. Schattner, +1 author S. Kivelson
• Published 5 December 2016
• Physics
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance It has been conjectured that many properties of highly correlated materials, including high-temperature superconductivity, may arise from proximity to a metallic quantum critical point. However, the nature of quantum critical phenomena in metals is incompletely understood. Using numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo methods, we simulated a model that can be tuned through a metallic quantum critical point and observed behaviors that are strikingly reminiscent of experiments. Among these phenomena are high-temperature superconductivity, non-Fermi liquid behavior of the electron Green function, and “bad metal” behavior of the electrical conductivity. Using determinantal quantum Monte Carlo, we compute the properties of a lattice model with spin 12 itinerant electrons tuned through a quantum phase transition to an Ising nematic phase. The nematic fluctuations induce superconductivity with a broad dome in the superconducting Tc enclosing the nematic quantum critical point. For temperatures above Tc, we see strikingly non-Fermi liquid behavior, including a “nodal–antinodal dichotomy” reminiscent of that seen in several transition metal oxides. In addition, the critical fluctuations have a strong effect on the low-frequency optical conductivity, resulting in behavior consistent with “bad metal” phenomenology.