We study the energy and spin transport of the classical spin liquid hosted by the pyrochlore Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the large $S$ limit. Molecular dynamics calculation suggests that both the energy and spin diffusion constants approach finite limits as the temperature tends to zero. We explain our results in terms of an effective disorder model, where the energy/spin-carrying normal modes propagate in a quasi-static disordered spin background. The finite zero temperature limits of the diffusion constants are then naturally understood as a result of the finite mean free path of the normal modes due to the effective disorder.
We study a hybrid system consisting of a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid adjoined at one or both ends to a superconductor. We find the tunneling density of states diverges at low energies and exhibits a universal frequency dependence independent of the strength of the interactions in the system. We show that in spite of exponentially decaying pair correlations with distance into the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, the Josephson current remains robust. Compared to the zero temperature Luttinger liquid case there is a factor of 2 reduction in the critical current and a halving of the period i…
Interacting one-dimensional electron systems are generally referred to as "Luttinger liquids", after the effective low-energy theory in which spin and charge behave as separate degrees of freedom with independent energy scales. The "spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid" describes a finite-temperature regime that is realized when the temperature is very small relative to the Fermi energy, but larger than the characteristic spin energy scale. Similar physics can take place in the ground-state, when a Luttinger Liquid is coupled to a spin bath, which effectively introduces a "spin temperature" throug…
We theoretically investigate the charge noise and dephasing in a metallic device in close proximity to a spin incoherent Luttinger liquid with a small but finite current. The frequency dependence of the charge noise exhibits a loss of frequency peaks corresponding to the $2k_F$ part of the density correlations in the electron liquid when the temperature $T$ is increased from values below the magnetic exchange energy $J$ of the electron gas to values above it. The dephasing rate in a nearby metallic nanostructure also shows a cross-over for $T \sim J$ and may exhibit a non-monotonic temperature…
We present time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) results for strongly interacting one dimensional fermionic systems at finite temperature. When interactions are strong the characteristic spin energy can be greatly suppressed relative to the characteristic charge energy, allowing for the possibility of spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid physics when the temperature is high compared to the spin energy, but small compared to the charge energy. Using DMRG we compute the spectral properties of the $t-J$ model at arbitrary temperatures with respect to both spin and charge energies…
We theoretically investigate transport in a spin incoherent one dimensional electron system, which may be realized in quantum wires at low electron density and finite temperature. Both the pure and disordered cases are considered, both in finite wires and in the thermodynamic limit. The effect of Fermi liquid leads attached to the finite length system is also addressed. In the infinite system, we find a phase diagram identical to that obtained for a spinless Luttinger Liquid, provided we make the identification $g=2g_c$, where $g$ is the interaction parameter in a spinless Luttinger Liquid and…
We discuss the properties of a strongly interacting spin-charge separated one dimensional system coupled to ferromagnets and/or superconductors. Our results are valid for arbitrary temperatures with respect to the spin energy, but require temperature be small compared to the charge energy. We focus mainly on the spin-incoherent regime where temperature is large compared to the spin energy, but small compared to the charge energy. In the case of a ferromagnet we study spin pumping and the renormalized dynamics of a precessing magnetic order parameter. We find the interaction-dependent temperatu…
We address the problem of a Luttinger liquid with a scatterer that allows for both coherent and incoherent scattering channels. The asymptotic behavior at zero temperature is governed by a new stable fixed point: a Goldstone mode dominates the low energy dynamics, leading to a universal behavior. This limit is marked by equal probabilities for forward and backward scattering. Notwithstanding this non-trivial scattering pattern, we find that the shot noise as well as zero cross-current correlations vanish. We thus present a paradigmatic picture of an impurity in the Luttinger model, alternative…
We theoretically investigate the Fermi edge singularity in a spin incoherent Luttinger liquid. Both cases of finite and infinite core hole mass are explored, as well as the effect of a static external magnetic field of arbitrary strength. For a finite mass core hole the absorption edge behaves as $(ω-ω_{\rm th})^α/ \sqrt{|\ln(ω-ω_{\rm th})|}$ for frequencies $ω$ just above the threshold frequency $ω_{\rm th}$. The exponent $α$ depends on the interaction parameter $g$ of the interacting one dimensional system, the electron-hole coupling, and is independent of the magnetic field strength, the mo…
In contrast to the well known Fermi liquid theory of three dimensions, interacting one-dimensional and quasi one-dimensional systems of fermions are described at low energy by an effective theory known as Luttinger liquid theory. This theory is expressed in terms of collective many-body excitations that show exotic behavior such as spin-charge separation. Luttinger liquid theory is commonly applied on the premise that "low energy" describes both the spin and charge sectors. However, when the interactions in the system are very strong, as they typically are at low particle densities, the ratio …
Abstract We study a two-band dispersive Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model in 1 + 1 dimension. We suggest a model that describes a semimetal with quadratic dispersion at half-filling. We compute the Green's function at the saddle point using a combination of analytical and numerical methods. Employing a scaling symmetry of the Schwinger-Dyson equations that becomes transparent in the strongly dispersive limit, we show that the exact solution of the problem yields a distinct type of non-Fermi liquid with sublinear $ρ\propto T^{2/5}$ temperature dependence of the resistivity. A scaling analysis indic…
We study the non-equilibrium transport properties of a highly anisotropic two-dimensional lattice of spin-1/2 particles governed by a Heisenberg XXZ Hamiltonian. The anisotropy of the lattice allows us to approximate the system at finite temperature as an array of incoherently coupled one-dimensional chains. We show that in the regime of strong intrachain interactions, the weak interchain coupling considerably boosts spin transport in the driven system. Interestingly, we show that this enhancement increases with the length of the chains, which is related to superdiffusive spin transport. We de…
The effect of a single static impurity on the many-body states and on the spin and thermal transport in the one-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg chain at finite temperatures is studied. Whereas the pure Heisenberg model reveals Poisson level statistics and dissipationless transport due to integrability, we show using the numerical approach that a single impurity induces Wigner-Dyson level statistics and at high enough temperature incoherent transport within the chain, whereby the relaxation time and d.c. conductivity scale linearly with length.
When a local potential changes abruptly in time, an electron gas shifts to a new state which at long times is orthogonal to the one in the absence of the local potential. This is known as Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe and it is relevant for the so-called X-ray edge or Fermi edge singularity, and for tunneling into an interacting one dimensional system of fermions. It often happens that the finite frequency response of the photon absorption or the tunneling density of states exhibits a singular behavior as a function of frequency: $(\frac{ω_{\rm th}}{ω-ω_{\rm th}})^αΘ(ω-ω_{\rm th})$ wher…
We calculate the junction resistance for a metal-barrier-metal device with the barrier tuned to lie just on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition. We find that the crossover from tunneling behavior in thin barriers at low temperature to incoherent transport in thick barriers at higher temperature is governed by a generalized Thouless energy. The crossover temperature can be estimated from the low temperature resistance of the device and the bulk density of states of the barrier.
The effect of incoherent interlayer transport on the interlayer resistance of a layered metal is considered. We find that for both quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional Fermi liquids the angular dependence of the magnetoresistance is essentially the same for coherent and incoherent transport. Consequently, the existence of a three-dimensional Fermi surface is not necessary to explain the oscillations in the magnetoresistance that are seen in many organic conductors as the field direction is varied.
Bethe ansatz and bosonization procedures are used to describe the thermodynamics of the strong-coupled Hubbard chain in the \textit{spin-incoherent} Luttinger liquid (LL) regime: $J(\equiv 4t^2/U)\ll k_B T\ll E_F$, where $t$ is the hopping amplitude, $U(\gg t)$ is the repulsive on-site Coulomb interaction, and $k_B T (E_F\sim t)$ is the thermal (Fermi) energy. We introduce a fractional Landau LL approach, whose $U=\infty$ fixed point is exactly mapped onto an ideal gas with two species obeying the Haldane-Wu \textit{exclusion} fractional statistics. This phenomenological approach sheds light o…
In a one dimensional electron gas at low enough density, the magnetic (spin) exchange energy $J$ between neighboring electrons is exponentially suppressed relative to the characteristic charge energy, the Fermi energy $E_F$. At non-zero temperature $T$, the energy hierarchy $J \ll T \ll E_F$ can be reached, and we refer to this as the spin incoherent Lutinger liquid state. We discuss the Coulomb drag between two parallel quantum wires in the spin incoherent regime, as well as the crossover to this state from the low temperature regime by using a model of a fluctuating Wigner solid. As the temp…
We investigate how the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator evolves into the d-wave BCS superconductor through hole doping. Allowing spin fluctuations in the strong coupling approach, we find a spin-gapped incoherent metal with preformed pairing as an intermediate phase between the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator and d-wave superconductor. This non-Fermi liquid metal is identified with an infrared stable fixed point in the spin-decomposition gauge theory, analogous to the spin liquid insulator in the slave-boson gauge theory. We consider the single particle spectrum and dynamical spin susceptibil…
We consider magnetohydrodynamics with an external magnetic field. We find that in general one must allow for a non-zero incoherent Hall conductivity to correctly describe the DC longitudinal and Hall thermal conductivities beyond order zero in the magnetic field expansion. We apply our result to the dyonic black hole, determining the incoherent Hall conductivity in that case, and additionally prove that the existence of this transport coefficient leads to a significantly better match between the hydrodynamic and AC thermo-electric correlators.
Marginal Fermi-liquid physics near optimal doping in high T_{c} cuprates has been explained within two competing scenarios such as the spin-fluctuation theory based on an itinerant picture and the slave-particle approach based on a localized picture. In this study we propose an alternative scenario for the anomalous transport within the context of the slave-particle approach. Although the marginal Fermi-liquid phenomenology was interpreted previously within deconfinement of the compact gauge theory, referred to as the strange metal phase, we start from confinement, introducing the Polyakov-loo…
One of the most notorious non-Fermi liquid properties of both archetypal heavy-fermion systems [1-4] and the high-Tc copper oxide superconductors [5] is an electrical resistivity that evolves linearly with temperature, T. In the heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 [5], this linear behaviour was one of the first indications of the presence of a zero-temperature instability, or quantum critical point. Here, we report the observation of a unique control parameter of T-linear scattering in CeCoIn5, found through systematic chemical substitutions of both magnetic and non-magnetic rare-earth, R, io…
We present comparative studies of the orientation effect of a strong magnetic field on the interlayer resistance of $α$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$KHg(SCN)$_4$ samples characterized by different crystal quality. We find striking differences in their behavior which is attributed to the breakdown of the coherent charge transport across the layers in the lower quality sample. In the latter case, the nonoscillating magnetoresistance background is essentially a function of only the out-of-plane field component, in contradiction to the existing theory.
We consider the interaction-driven Mott transition at zero temperature from the viewpoint of microscopic Fermi liquid theory. To this end, we derive an exact expression for the Landau parameters within the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) approximation to the single-band Hubbard model. At the Mott transition the symmetric and the anti-symmetric Landau parameter diverge. The vanishing compressibility at the Mott transition directly implies the divergence of the forward scattering amplitude in the charge sector, which connects the proximity of the Mott phase to a tendency towards phase separat…
We study heat transport in two systems without momentum conservation: a hydrodynamic system, and a holographic system with spatially dependent, massless scalar fields. When momentum dissipates slowly, there is a well-defined, coherent collective excitation in the AC heat conductivity, and a crossover between sound-like and diffusive transport at small and large distance scales. When momentum dissipates quickly, there is no such excitation in the incoherent AC heat conductivity, and diffusion dominates at all distance scales. For a critical value of the momentum dissipation rate, we compute exa…
We present an electrical transport study of the 2-dimensional (2D) organic conductor tau-(P-(S,S)-DMEDT-TTF)_2(AuBr)_2(AuBr_2)_y (y = 0.75) at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. The inter-plane resistivity rho_zz increases with decreasing temperature, with the exception of a slight anomaly at 12 K. Under a magnetic field B, both rho_zz and the in-plane resistivity plane rho_xx show a pronounced negative and hysteretic magnetoresistance with Shubnikov de Haas (SdH)oscillations being observed in some (high quality)samples above 15 T. Contrary to the predicted single, star-shaped, closed …
Optical conductivity measurements on a BaCoS2 single crystal show an unusual linear behavior over a broad spectral range. In the paramagnetic phase above 300 K, the spectrum shows no gap, which contradicts the previously proposed scenario of a charge-transfer Mott insulator. Ab initio dynamical mean field theory calculations including a retarded Hubbard interaction explain the data in terms of an incipient opening of a Co(3d)-S(3p) charge-transfer gap concomitant to incoherent charge transport driven by electronic correlations. These results point to a non-Fermi liquid scenario with Hund's met…
In an incoherent metal, transport is controlled by the collective diffusion of energy and charge rather than by quasiparticle or momentum relaxation. We explore the possibility of a universal bound $D \gtrsim \hbar v_F^2/(k_B T)$ on the underlying diffusion constants in an incoherent metal. Such a bound is loosely motivated by results from holographic duality, the uncertainty principle and from measurements of diffusion in strongly interacting non-metallic systems. Metals close to saturating this bound are shown to have a linear in temperature resistivity with an underlying dissipative timesca…
The magnetic-field, temperature, and angular dependence of the interlayer magnetoresistance of two different quasi-two-dimensional (2D) organic superconductors is reported. For $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ we find a well-resolved peak in the angle-dependent magnetoresistance at $Θ= 90^\circ$ (field parallel to the layers). This clear-cut proof for the coherent nature of the interlayer transport is absent for $β$''-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$SF$_5$CH$_2$CF$_2$SO$_3$. This and the non-metallic behavior of the magnetoresistance suggest an incoherent quasiparticle motion for the latter 2D metal.
We calculate the optical and DC conductivity for half-filled disordered Hubbard model near the Mott metal-insulator transition. As in the clean case, large metallic resistivity is driven by a strong inelastic scattering, and Drude-like peak in the optical conductivity persists even at temperatures when the resistivity is well beyond the semiclassical Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit. Local random potential does not introduce new charge carriers, but it induces effective local carrier doping and broadens the bandwidth. This makes the system more metallic, in agreement with the recent experiments on X-ray…
We report a systematic investigation on the high-temperature thermoelectric response in a typical filling-control Mott transition system La1-xSrxVO3. In the vicinity of the Mott transition, incoherent charge transport appears with increasing temperature and the thermopower undergoes two essential crossovers, asymptotically approaching the limit values expected from the entropy consideration, as known as Heikes formula. By comparison with the results of the dynamical mean field theory, we show that the thermopower in the Mott critical state mainly measures the entropy per charge carrier that de…
Transport in strongly-disordered, metallic systems is governed by diffusive processes. Based on quantum mechanics, it has been conjectured that these diffusivities obey a lower bound $D/v^2\gtrsim \hbar/k_B T$, the saturation of which provides a mechanism for the T-linear resistivity of bad metals. This bound features a characteristic velocity $v$, which was later argued to be the butterfly velocity $v_B$, based on holographic models of transport. This establishes a link between incoherent metallic transport, quantum chaos and Planckian timescales. Here we study higher derivative corrections t…
We study thermal transport in strongly disordered, strongly interacting quantum field theories without quasiparticles using gauge-gravity duality. We analyze linear perturbations of black holes with broken translational symmetry in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories of gravity. Using general geometric arguments in the bulk, we derive bounds on thermal conductivity for the dual disordered field theories in one and two spatial dimensions. In the latter case, the thermal conductivity is always non-zero at finite temperature, so long as the dilaton potential is bounded from below. Hence, generic ho…
Holographic strange metals are known to have a power law resistivity rising with temperature, which is reminiscent of the strange metal phases in condensed matter systems. In some holographic models, however, the exponent of the power law in the resistivity can be negative. In this case one encounters phases with diverging resistivity at zero temperature: holographic strange insulators. These states arise as a result of translational symmetry breaking in the system, which can either be strong explicit and relevant in the IR, or spontaneous, but pinned by a small explicit source. In some regard…
It is commonly believed that strongly interacting one-dimensional Fermi systems with gapless excitations are effectively described by Luttinger liquid theory. However, when the temperature of the system is high compared to the spin energy, but small compared to the charge energy, the system becomes "spin-incoherent". We present numerical evidence showing that the one-dimensional "t-J-Kondo" lattice, consisting of a t-J chain interacting with localized spins, displays all the characteristic signatures of spin-incoherent physics, but in the {\it ground state}. We argue that similar physics may b…
In a clean quantum critical metal, and in the absence of umklapp, most d.c. conductivities are formally infinite due to momentum conservation. However, there is a particular combination of the charge and heat currents which has a finite, universal conductivity. In this paper, we describe the physics of this conductivity $σ_Q$ in quantum critical metals obtained by charge doping a strongly interacting conformal field theory. We show that it satisfies an Einstein relation and controls the diffusivity of a conserved charge in the metal. We compute $σ_Q$ in a class of theories with holographic gra…
The interlayer magnetoresistance of layered metals in a tilted magnetic field is calculated for two distinct models for the interlayer transport. The first model involves coherent interlayer transport and makes use of results of semi-classical or Bloch-Boltzmann transport theory. The second model involves weakly incoherent interlayer transport where the electron is scattered many times within a layer before tunneling into the next layer. The results are relevant to the interpretation of experiments on angular-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) in quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimension…
We introduce and solve a model of interacting electrons and phonons that is a natural generalization of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev-model and that becomes superconducting at low temperatures. In the normal state two Non-Fermi liquid fixed points with distinct universal exponents emerge. At weak coupling superconductivity prevents the onset of low-temperature quantum criticality, reminiscent of the behavior in several heavy-electron and iron-based materials. At strong coupling, pairing of highly incoherent fermions sets in deep in the Non-Fermi liquid regime, a behavior qualitatively similar to that …
Recent photoemission experiments \cite{dessau} reveal that the excitations along the nodal region in the strange metal of the cuprates, rather than corresponding to poles in the single-particle Green function, exhibit power-law scaling as a function of frequency and temperature. Because such power-law scaling is indicative of a scale-invariant sector, as a first step, we perturbatively evaluate the electron self-energy due to interactions with scale-invariant unparticles. We focus on a $G_0W$ type diagram with an interaction $W$ mediated by a bosonic scalar unparticle. We find that, in the hig…
A mysterious incoherent metallic (IM) normal state with $T$-linear resistivity is ubiquitous among strongly correlated superconductors. Recent progress with microscopic models exhibiting IM transport has presented the opportunity for us to study new models that exhibit direct transitions into a superconducting state out of IM states within the framework of connected Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) "quantum dots". Here local SYK interactions within a dot produce IM transport in the normal state, while local attractive interactions drive superconductivity. Through explicit calculations, we find two feat…
Strongly correlated metals comprise an enduring puzzle at the heart of condensed matter physics. Commonly a highly renormalized heavy Fermi liquid occurs below a small coherence scale, while at higher temperatures a broad incoherent regime pertains in which quasi-particle description fails. Despite the ubiquity of this phenomenology, strong correlations and quantum fluctuations make it challenging to study. The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev(SYK) model describes a $0+1$D quantum cluster with random all-to-all \emph{four}-fermion interactions among $N$ Fermion modes which becomes exactly solvable as $N\righ…
Strange metals possess highly unconventional transport characteristics, such as a linear-in-temperature ($T$) resistivity, an inverse Hall angle that varies as $T^2$ and a linear-in-field ($H$) magnetoresistance. Identifying the origin of these collective anomalies has proved profoundly challenging, even in materials such as the hole-doped cuprates that possess a simple band structure. The prevailing dogma is that strange metallicity in the cuprates is tied to a quantum critical point at a doping $p*$ inside the superconducting dome. Here, we study the high-field in-plane magnetoresistance of …
We give a brief introduction to Luttinger liquids and to the phenomena of electronic transport or conductance in quantum wires. We explain why the subject of transport in Luttinger liquids is relevant and fascinating and review some important results on tunneling through barriers in a one-dimensional quantum wire and the phenomena of persistent currents in mesoscopic rings. We give a brief description of our own work on transport through doubly-crossed Luttinger liquids and transport in the Schulz-Shastry exactly solvable Luttinger-like model.
In many unconventional superconductors, the presence of a pseudogap - a suppression in the electronic density of states extending above the critical temperature - has been a long-standing mystery. Here, we employ combined \textit{in situ} electrical transport and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements to reveal an unprecedentedly large pseudogap regime in single-layer FeSe/SrTiO$_3$, an interfacial superconductor where incoherent Cooper pairs are initially formed above $T_Δ$ $\approx$ 60 K, but where a zero resistance state is only achieved below $T_{0}$ $<$ 30 K. We sh…
Good metals are characterised by diffusive transport of coherent quasi-particle states and the resistivity is much less than the Mott-Ioffe-Regel (MIR) limit, $\frac{ha}{e^{2}}$, where $a$ is the lattice constant. In bad metals, such as many strongly correlated electron materials, the resistivity exceeds the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit and the transport is incoherent in nature. Hartnoll, loosely motivated by holographic duality (AdS/CFT correspondence) in string theory, recently proposed a lower bound to the charge diffusion constant, $D \gtrsim \hbar v_{F}^{2}/(k_{B}T)$, in the incoherent regime o…
We study an open Heisenberg XXZ spin chain with long-range Ising-type interaction, which is incoherently driven at its boundaries and therefore a far-from-equilibrium steady state current is induced. Quantum Monte Carlo techniques make a regime accessible, where the system size is large enough to examine the transition from a diffusive to a ballistic transport regime. We find that the chain lengths for this transition are increasing with decreasing range of the Ising-type interactions between distant spins, while the strength of the incoherent driving does not have a relevant effect on the tra…
Transport through two one-dimensional interacting metals (Luttinger liquids) coupled together at a single point is analyzed. The dominant coupling mechanism is shown to be of electrostatic nature. Describing the voltage sources by boundary conditions then allows for the full solution of the transport problem. For weak Coulomb interactions, transport is unperturbed by the coupling. In contrast, for strong interactions, unusual nonlinear conductance laws characteristic for the correlated system can be observed.
We develop U(1) slave spin-rotor theory, suggesting a metal-metal transition from Landau's Fermi-liquid state to a bad metal phase, as U(1) slave charge-rotor theory [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 70}, 035114 (2004)] describes a metal-insulator transition from Landau's Fermi-liquid state to a spin-liquid phase. U(1) slave spin-rotor formulation allows us to generalize Hertz-Moriya-Millis theory for ferromagnetic quantum phase transitions, replacing Landau's Fermi-liquid state with an incoherent metallic phase. As a result, we argue that localized magnetic moments emerge to govern quantum critical physics …
We study the transport properties of long quantum wires by generalizing the Luttinger liquid approach to allow for the finite lifetime of the bosonic excitations. Our theory accounts for long-range disorder and strong electron interactions, both of which are common features of experiments with quantum wires. We obtain the electrical and thermal resistances and thermoelectric properties of such quantum wires. We cast our results in terms of the thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity of the electron liquid and give the temperature scale above which the transport can be described by classical hy…
