Condensed Matter Theory Seminar | September 05, 10:00

Electrical transport near an Ising-nematic quantum critical point


An electronic Ising-nematic order spontaneously breaks the rotation symmetry of the underlying lattice down to two-fold. It has been observed in various systems, in particular the cuprate and iron-based high temperature superconductors. In the vicinity of a nematic quantum critical point — achieved by tuning some external parameter such as pressure or doping — the physics is described by that of low-frequency long-wavelength order parameter fluctuations coupled to a Fermi surface. However, due to the momentum-conserving nature of the induced electron-electron interaction, the temperature dependence of the resistivity near an Ising nematic QCP remains unclear. In this talk, we shed light on the problem by incorporating disorder and Umklapp process into the low-energy theory. Our work can be viewed as solving an extended Boltzmann equation, with a collision integral that accounts for complicated multi-particle scattering processes important near the QCP.


Xiaoyu Wang, University of Chicago
Seminar Room 0.03, ETP
Contact: Carsten Bauer